No. 54. I 




ENGLISH-CLASSIC'SERIES 



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\ \ J_± I ■ ■ -■- ■ - ■ -■-■-^ T=T=1 









AMERICAN TAXATION 




Edmund Burke. 



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No. 54. 
ENGLISH CLASSIC SERIES, 



AMERICAN TAXATION, 

A SPEECH, DELIVERED APRIL 19, 1774. 

/ 



BY EDMUND BURKE. 



I 




' EDITED WITH NOTES BY 

ALBERT F. BLAISDELL, A.M., 

/UTHOR OF "outlines FOR THE STUDY OF ENGLISH CI-ASSICS," "MEMORY 
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tiii.i He is thus taught to put the 6tei)s of ] 
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Copyright, 1885. by Clark &f Maynard. 



AMERICAN TAXATION. 



These two speeches ("Taxation " and " Conciliation ') both deserve 
to be studied witli tlie utmost diligence by every American scholar.— 
Chauncey A. Goodrich. 

Of all Burke's writings none are so fit to secure unqualified and 
unanimovis admiration as the speeches on this momentous struggle. 
(American Revolution). They compose the most perfect manual in 
our literature for one who approaches the study of public affairs, 
whether for knowledge or for practice.— Jb/j?i Mwley. 

INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 

The measures of the different British ministers regarding American 
taxation, from the passage of the Stamp Act, in ITfio, to the repeal of all 
the taxes except that on tea in 1770, are well known to every student 
of American history. Lord N orth's policy in respect to America was 
arbitrary and fluctuating. After the destruction of tea in Boston har- 
bor violent measures prevailedj In March* 177i> laws were passed de- 
priving Massachusetts of her charter, and closing the port of Boston 
against all commerce. Some, however, M'ho had supported Lord North 
in these measures, thought they should be accompanied by an act in- 
dicative of a desire to conciliate. Accordingly, Islx. Rose Fuller, of Rye, 
who usually voted with the Ministry, nioved on the 19th of April, 1774, 
" that the House resolve itself into a committee of the whole House, to 
take into consideration the duty of three-pence per pound on tea, pay- 
able in all his Majesty's dominions in America," with a vie w to repeal- 
-: the same. Mr. Burke seconded the proposal, and sustained it in 
following speech. The applause so lavishly bestowed upon this 
'ch was richly deserved.A The matter is most admirably arranged. 
. n^uage is racy and pungent. It is marked by deep research, 
! r 1'.. asoning, cutting sarcasm, graphic description, and fervid dec- 
>i . -.1. Burke consented to the publication of this speech at the 
licitation of his friends. It seems to have been fropi a gen- 

7 



8 AMERICAN TAXATION. 

erous "Wish to give the British Ministry an opportunity of doing their 
best to restore tranquillity, and from an indisposition to appear equally 
unwilling to soften down the terms in which he had spoken, that 
Burke deferred the publication of the speech until the beginning of the 
following year. It was several times reprinted, and, like most of the 
great orator's publications, provoked an "Answer," which is not 
worthy of attention. 

1. Sir : — I agree with the Honorable Gentleman ^ who 
spoke last, that this subject is not new^ in this House. Very 
disagreeably to this House, very unfortunately to this nation, 
and to the peace and prosperity of this whole empire, no 
topic has been more familiar to us. For nine long years, 
session after session, we have been lashed round and round 
this miserable circle of occasional arguments and temj^orary 
expedients. I am sure our heads must turn, and our stom- 
achs nauseate with them. ^Ye have had them in every 
shaj)e ; we have looked at them in every point of view. In- 
vention is exhausted ; reason is fatigued ; experience has 
given judgment ; but obstinacy is not yet conquered. 

2. The Honorable Gentleman has made one endeavor 
more to diversify the form of this disgusting ^ argument. He 
has thrown out a speech composed almost entirely of chal- 
lenges. Challenges are serious things ; and as he is a man 
of prudence as well as resolution, T dare say he has very well 

Note. — The Editor has omitted such passages in this speech, as are 
of no special interest to students of the present day. The wording has 
not been changed, nor have any sentences been abridged. 

1. Honorable gentleman. — Charles Wolfran Cornwall, became a Lord 
of the Treasuiy in 1774, chosen Speaker of the House of Comraons in 
17S(). Lord Chatham said of him : -'.Such men are not found every day." 

2. Subject is not new.- The present debate had begun in the dullest 
possible stj^le. Many speakers had already well tried the patience of 
the House. The members had begun to disperse to the adjoining 
apartments, or places of refreshment. Hence the short, lashii t, 
petulant exordium, contrasting strongly with those of the grt ■■ 
speeches on the Economical Reform, and the Nabob ofArcot'sDet . 
It was necessary to arrest the attention of the House in llie dullest p;r; 
of a debate. The report of it spread rapidly, and members crowd i 
backfill the hall was filled to the utmost. It resovinded t' '•oughc r,. 
the speech with the loudest applause. The student shoul> o.i-^rv^ ..; 
contrast between this preamble and that of the speech whi !i t>>ii > 
The latter is EfuU of touches of that trifling which Avas s<> ouji 

the speaking of the last century; wliat Hazlitt terms, 'calliTtt? •>. 
Speaker to dance a minuet with him before he begins.' 

3. Disgusting.— This epithet simply means "wearisome, 
" More disgusting than his own VGni-voW,— Goldsmith, 



AMERICAN TA.XATION. \f 

'.\ eighed those challenges before he delivered them. I had 
< Tig the happiness to sit at the same side * of the House, and 
1 V) agree with the Honorable Gentleman on all the American 
luestions. My sentiments, I am sure, are well known to 
him ; and I thought I had been perfectly acquainted with 
his. Though I find myself mistaken, he will still permit me 
to use the privilege of an old friendship ; he will permit me 
to apply myself to the House under the sanction of his au- 
thority ; and, on the various grounds he has measured out, 
to submit to j^ou the poor opinions which I have formed 
upon a matter of importance enough to demand the fullest 
consideration 1 could bestow upon it. 

3. He has stated to the House two grounds of delibera- 
tion ; one narrow and simple, and merely confined to the 
question on your paper : the other more large and more com- 
plicated ; comprehending the whole series of the Parliamen- 
tary proceedings with regard to the latter ground, he states 
it as useless, and thinks it may be even dangerous, to enter 
into so extensive a field of inquiry. Yet, to my surprise, he 
had hardly laid down this restrictive 2:)roposition, to which 
his authority would have given so much weight, when di- 
rectly, and with the same authority, he condemns it ; and 
declares it absolutely necessary to enter into the most ample 
historical detail.^ His zeal has thrown him a little out of 
his usual accuracy. In this perplexity what shall we do, 
Sir, who are willing to submit to the law he gives us ? He 
has reprobated in one part of his speech the rule he had laid 
down for debate in the other ; and, after narrowing the 
ground for all those who are to speak after him, he takes an 
excursion himself, as unbounded as the subject and the ex- 
tent of his great abilities. 

4. Sir, When I cannot obey all his laws, I will do the best 
I can. I will endeavor to obey such of them as have the 



L At the same side.— Cornwall was a renegade from Lord Shelburne's 
ii aty, and had spoken with effect on the side of the opposition in the 
' ' tes on the American question. 

.-listorical detail.— It is to this demand of Cornwall that we are 
ivI'Oted for the second part of this speech— the history ot American 
H\Ei tion — one of the most interesting passages in English literature. . 



10 AMERICAN TAXATION. 

sanction of his example ; and to stick to that rule, wliicli. 
though not consistent with the other, is the most rationu 
He was certainly in the right when he took the matter 
largely. I cannot prevail on myself to agree with him in his 
censure of his own conduct. It is not, he will give me leave 
to say, either useless or dangerous. He asserts, that retro- 
spect is not wise ; and the proper, the only proper, subject of 
inquiry, is ' not how we got into this difficulty, but how we 
are to get out of it.' In other words, we are, according to 
him, to consult our invention, and to reject our experience. 
The mode of deliberation he recommends is diametrically 
opposite to every rule of reason and every principle of good 
sense established amongst mankind. For that sense and 
that reason I have always understood absolutely to prescribe, 
whenever we are involved in difficulties from the measures 
w^e have pursued, that we should take a strict review of those 
measures, in order to correct our errors, if they should be 
corrigible ; or at least to avoid ^ dull uniformity in mischief, 
and the unpitied calamity of being repeatedly caught in the 
same snare. 

Sir, I will freely follow the Honorable Gentleman in his 
historical discussion, without the least management for men 
or measures, farther than as they shall seem to me to deserve 
it. But before I go into that large consideration, because I 
would omit nothing that can give the House, satisfaction, I 
wish to tread the narrow ground to which alone the Honor- 
able Gentleman, in one part of his speech, has so strictly 
confined us. 

5. He desires to know, whether, if we w^ere to repeal this 
tax, agi-eeably to the proposition of the Honorable Gentleman 
who made the motion, the Americans would not take post " 
on this concession, in order to make a new attack on the 
next body of taxes ; and whether they would not call iV»r ; 
repeal of the duty on w^ine as loudly as they do now fo-- rh 
repeal of the duty on tea? Sir, I can give no security o?) r ^ i 

6. Take post, etc.— To take tUeir stuocl on it as an argument for 
concessions, 



AMERICAN TAXATION. 11 

subject. But I will do all that I can, and all that can be 
fairly demanded. To the experience which the Honorable 
(j^ntleman reprobates in one instant, and reverts to in the 
next ; to that experience, without the least wavering or hesi- 
tation on my part, I steadily appeal ; and would to God there 
was no other arbiter to decide on the vote with which the 
llouse is to conclude this day ! 

6. When Parliament repealed the Stamp Act in the year 
1766, I affirm, first, that the Americans did 7iot in conse- 
quence of this measure call upon yo\x to give up the former 
Parliamentary revenue which subsisted in that country ; or 
even any one of the articles which compose it.^ I affirm also, 
that when, dej)arting from the maxims of that repeal, you 
revived the scheme of taxation, and thereby filled the minds 
of the Colonists with new jealousy, and all sorts of appre- 
hensions, then it was that they quarreled with the old taxes, 
as well as the new ; then it was, and not till then, that they 
qaesiioiaeu :;.ll the parts of your legislative power ; and by 
the battery of such questions have shaken the solid structure 
of this empire to its deepest foundations. 

7. Of those two propositions I shall, before I have done, 
give such convincing proof, that however the contrary may 
be whispered in circles, or bawled in newspapers, they never 
more will dare to raise their voices in this House. I speak 
with great confidence. I have reason for it. The Ministers 
are with me. Then ^t least are convinced that the repeal of 
the Stamp Act had not, and that no repeal can have, the conse- 
quences which the Honorable Gentleman who defends their 
measures is so much alarmed at. To their conduct I refer 
him for a conclusive answer to his objection. I carry my 
proof irresistibly into the very body of both Ministry and 
Parliament ; not on any general reasoning growing out of 
collateral matter, but on the conduct of the Honorable Gen- 
tleman's Ministerial friends on the new revenue itself. 



7. Compose it. — There is reason to believe that the Colonies would 
not have made any opposition to duties imposed for the m^re regul^- 
t ion of trade. 



12 AMERICAN TAXATION. 

8. The act of 1767, which grants this tea dutj', sets forth 
in its preamble, that it was expedient to raise a revenue in 
America, for the support of the civil government there, as 
well as for purposes still more extensive. To this support 
the act assigns six branches of duties. About two years after 
this act passed, the Ministry, I mean the iDresent Ministry, 
thought it expedient to repeal five of the duties and to leave 
(for reasons best known to themselves) only the sixth stand- 
ing. Suppose any person, at the time of that repeal, had 
thus addressed the Minister :* ' Condemning, as you do, the 
repeal of the Stamp Act, why do you venture to repeal the 
duties upon glass, paper, and painters' colors? Let your 
pretence for the repeal be what it w^ill, are you not thor- 
oughly convinced, that your concessions will produce, not 
satisftiction, but insolence, in the Americans ; and that the 
giving up these taxes w^ill necessitate the giving up of all 
the rest? ' This objection was as palpable then as it is now ; 
and it was as good for i^reserving the five duties as for 
retaining the sixth. Besides, the Minister will recollect, 
that the repeal of the Stamp Act had but just preceded his 
repeal ; and the ill policy of that measure, (had it been so 
impolitic as it has been represented,) and the mischiefs it 
produced, were quite recent. Upon the principles therefore 
of the Honorable Gentleman, upon the principles of the 
Minister himself, the Minister has nothing at all to answer. 
He stands condemned by himself, and by all his associates, 
old and new, as a destroyer, in the first trust of finance, of 
the revenues ; and in the first rank of honor, as a betrayer 
of the dignity of his country. 

9. Most men, especially great men, do not always know 
their well-wishers. I come to rescue that noble Lord out 
of the hands of those he calls his friends ; and even out of 
his own. I will do him the justice he is denied at home. 
He has not been this w icked or imprudent man. He knew 
that a repeal had no tendency to produce the mischiefs 



S. The Minister.— Lord North, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, was 
minister at the time of this repeal, March 5, 1770. 



A.\li:_vJ AN TAXATION. 13 

which give so much alarm to his Honorable friend. His 
work was not bad in its j>rinciples, but imperfect in its exe- 
cution : and the motion on your pajDcr presses him only to 
complete a proper plan, which, by some unfortunate and 
unaccountable error, he h\d left unfinished.' 

10. I hope, Sir, the Honorable Gentleman who spoke 
last, is thoroughly satisfied, and satisfied out of the proceed- 
ings of Ministry on their own favorite act, that his fears 
from a repeal are groundless. If he is not, I leave him, and 
the noble Lord who sits by him, to settle the matter, as well 
IS they can, together; for if the repeal of American taxes 
destroys all our government in America — He is the man ! — 
md he is the worst of all the repealers, '" because he is the 
last. 

11. But I hear it rung continually in my ears, now^ and 
formerly, — ' the preamble ! what wdll become of the pream- 
ble, if you repeal this tax ? ' — I am sorry to be compelled so 
often to expose the calamities and disgraces of Parliament. 
The preamble of this law, standing as it now stands, has the 
lie direct given to it by the provisionary part of the act ; if 
ohat can be called provisionary which makes no provision. 
[ should be afraid to express myself in this manner, especially 
n the face of such a formidable array of ability as is now 
irawn up before me, composed of the ancient household 
:roops of that side of the House, and the new recruits" from 
this, if the matter were not clear and indisputable. Nothing 
but truth could give me this firmness ; but plain truth and 
clear evidence can be beat down by no ability. The Clerk 
will be so good as to turn to the act, and to read this favorite 
preamble : 

9. Left unfinished.— To give this paragraph its proper effect, we must 
suppose it to be concluded with "ciieers and laughter." 

10. "Worst of all the repealers.— Lord Xorth. Lord Rockingham had 
repealed only one duty, Mhile Lord North had repealed five. These 
K)ur paragraphs must be understood in their true spirit of open irony 
•n the form of an 'argumentum ad hominem.' Their pungency is in- 
m-eased by the ingenious turn given to it by Burke, that he is defend- 
ing Lord North against his own friends and adherents. 

li. New recruits.— Alluding to the deserters from the various sections 
of the Whig party, who by this time had gone over to the Court in 
.arge numbers. 



14 AMERICAN TAXATION. 

Whereas it is expedient that a re^ "i;>k- -'vaild be raised in 
your Majesty's dominions in America, for making a 
more certain and cidequcite provisioii ior defraying the 
charge of the administration of justice and support of 
civil government, in such provinces where it shall be 
found necessary ; and towards further defraying the 
expenses of defending, protecting , and securing the said 
dominions. 

12. You have heard this pompous performance. Now 
where is the revenue which is to do all these mighty things ? 
Five-sixths repealed — abandoned — sunk— gone— lost forever. 
Does the poor solitary tea duty support the purposes of this 
preamble? Is not the supply there stated as effectually 
abandoned as if the tea duty had perished in the general 
wreck ? Here, Mr. Speaker, is a precious mockery ^" a pre- 
amble without an act — taxes granted in order to be repealed 
— and the reasons of the grant still carefully kept up ! This 
is raising a revenue in America ! This is preserving dignity 
in England \ If you repeal this tax in compliance with the 
motion, I readily admit that you lose this fair preamble. 
Estimate your loss in it. The object of the act is gone 
already ; and all you suffer is the purging the statute-book 
of the opprobrium of an empty, absurd, and false recital. 

13. It has been said again and again, that the five taxes 
were repealed on commercial principles. It is so said in the 
paper in my hand ^^ ; a paper which I constantly carry about ; 
which I have often used, and shall often use again. What 
is got by this paltry pretence of commercial princij^les I know 
not : for if your government in America is destroyed by the 
repeal of taxes, it is of no consequence upon what ideas the 
repeal is grounded. Repeal this tax too upon commercial 
principles if you please. These principles will serve as well 
now as they did formerly. But you know that, either your 

V 

12. Precious mockery.— Used thus ironically by Locke. ^Precious 
limbs was at first an expression of great feeling; till vagabonds, dray- 
men, etc-, brought upon it the character of coarseness and ridicule.' 
—Lord Thurlow, Letter to Coicper. 

13. Paper in my hand.— Lord Hillsborough's circular letter to the 
Governors of the Colonies, concerning the repeal of some of the duties 
laid in the Act of 1767. 



^ AMERICAN TAXATION. 15 

.'ibjectioii to a repeal from these supposed consequences has 
do validity or t hat this pretence never could remove it. This 
( ©mnKrcial motive never was believed by any man, either 
iiji America, which this letter is meant to soothe, or in Eng- 
i jind, which it is meant to deceive. It was impossible it 
iiould. Because every man, in the least acquainted with 
title detail of commerce, must know, that several of the arti- 
i'.les on which the tax was repealed, were fitter objects of 
duties than almost arrj^ other articles that could possibly be 
chosen ; without comparison more so, than the tea that was 
k^ft taxed ; as infinitely less liable to be eluded by contra- 
band. Some of the things taxed were so trivial, that the 
loss of the objects themselves, and their utter annihilation 
>\it of American commerce, would have been comparatively 
as nothing. But is the article of tea such an object in the 
{fade of England, as not to be felt, or felt but slightly, like 
\Vhite lead and red lead, and painters' colors? Tea is an 
object of far other importance. Tea is perhaps the most im- 
|)Ortant object, taking it with its necessary connections, of 
uhy in the mighty circle of our commerce. If commercial 
y rinciples had been the true motives to the repeal, or had 
' ley been at all attended to, tea would have been the last 
:ticle we should have left taxed for a subject of controversy. 
14. Sir, it is not a pleasant consideration ; '* but nothing 
I the world can read so awful and so instructive a lesson, as 
le conduct of Ministry in this business, upon the mischief ^ 
' not having large and liberal ideas in the management of 
I reat affairs. Never have the servants of the state looked at 
: lie whole of your complicated interests in one connected 
iew. They have taken things by bits and scraps, some at 
' ae time and one pretence, and some at another, just as 
' iiey pressed, without any sort of regard to their relations or 



14. Not a pleasant consideration.— Burke here makes a landing place, 
s usual, out of a broad generalization arising from a particularly 
riking point in his argument. The student should note the effective 
ie of familiar terms in the body of the paragraph, and its contrast 
ith the rlietorical sentence which concludes it. In tlie next para- 
'aph he returns to the argument on the preamble, after a digression 
1 the interests of the East India Company. 



z' 



16 AMERICAN TAXATION. 

dependencies. They never had any kind of systeiii ig't or 
wrong ; but only invented occasionally some miserable tal€^ 
for the day, in order meanly to sneak out of ditli^juirio: int(^ 
which they had proudly strutted. And they were puttoalk 
these shifts and devices, full of meanness and full of mischief, 
in order to pilfer piece-meal a repeal of an act, which thej - 
had not the generous courage, when they found and felt theii- 
error, honorably and fairly to disclaim. By such manage- 
ment, by the irresistible operation of feeble counsels, so jial- 
try a sum as three-pence in the eyes of a financier, so insig-- 
nificant an article as tea in the eyes of a philosopher, hav€> 
shaken the pillars of a commercial empire that circled thei' 
whole globe. 

15. Do you forget that, in the very last year, you stood 
on the precipice of general bankruptcy ? Your danger waw 
indeed great. You were distressed in the affairs of the East 
India Company ; and you well know what sort of things arc 
involved in the comprehensive energy of that significant 
appellation. I am not called upon to enlarge to you on that 
danger, which you thought proper yourselves to aggravate, 
and to display to the world with all the parade of indiscreet 
declamation. The monopoly '^ of the most lucrative trades, 
and the possession of imperial revenues, had brought you to 
the verge of beggary and ruin.^^ Such was your representa- 
tion—such, in some measure, was your case. The vent of 
ten millions of pounds ^^ of this commodity, now locked up 

15. Monopoly.— The whole commerce of the East with Great Britain 
was in the hands of the company. 

1(). Verge of beggary and ruin.— The Company had agreed to the pay- 
ment of £400,000, per annum to government. But in 1772, while many 
of their servants had returned to England with large fortunes, the 
Company became so involved in difficulties as not only to be unable 
to pay this sum, but to make it necessary that f l,4(Kt,000, should be ad- 
vanced to them Dy the public. The exhaustion of the country, and the 
expenses incurred in the war with Hyder All and France, involved 
the Company in fresh difficulties; and they were obliged, in 1783, to 
present a petition to Parliament, setting forth their inability to pay 
their annual sum of £400,tXX)., praying to be excused therefrom, and to 
be supported by a loan of £900,(X>0. At this criis Fox brought in his 
India Bill, on which Burke made one of the most memorable of his 
speeches, the last but one of the five parliamentary orations which he 
gave to trie world through the press. 

17. Ten millions of pounds.— In 1772 official reports showed that the 
warehouses of the Company contained 10,000,000 pounds of tea. 



AMERICAN TAXATION. 17 

by the operation of an injudicious tax, and rotting in the 
wareliouses ^^ of tlie Company, would liave prevented all this 
distress, and all that series of desperate measures which you 
thought 3'ourself obliged to take in consequence of it. 
America would have furnished that vent, which no other part 
of the world can furnish but America ; where tea is next to 
a necessary of life ; and where the demand grows upon the 
supply. 

16. I hope our dear-bought East India committees have 
done us at least so much good, as to let us know, that, with- 
out a more extensive sale of that article, our East India rev- 
enues and acquisitions can have no certain connection w^ith 
this country. It is through the American trade of tea that 
your East India conquests are to be prevented from crushing 
you with their burden.. They are ponderous indeed : and 
they must have that great country to lean upon, or they 
tumble upon your head. '\J± is the same folly that has lost 
you at once the benefit of the West and of the East. *This 
folly has thrown open folding-doors to contraband ; and 
will be the means of giving the profits of the trade of your 
colonies to everj^ nation but yourselves. Never did a people 
suffer so much for the empty words of a preamble. It must 
be given up. For on what principles does it stand ? This 
famous revenue stands, at this hour, on all the debate, as a 
description of revenue not as yet known in all the compre- 
hensive (but too comprehensive ! ) vocabulary of finance— a 
preambulari/ tax. It is indeed a tax of sophistry, a tax of 
pedantry, a tax of disputation, a tax of war and rebellion, a 
tax for anything but benefit to the imposers, or satisfaction 
to the subject. 

17. Well ! but whatever it is, gentlemen will force the 
Colonifts to take the teas. You Avill force them? Has seven 
years' struggle yet been able to force them ? O but it seems» 
* W«' are in the right. The tax is trifiing— in fact it is rather 
ai( '•>' ■ ►ration than an imposition; three-fourths of the 



nC. 



is. Rotting in the warehouses.— The absurd regulations which made 
it necessary for tlie Company to keep a year's supply of tea in their 
wmehouses, helped to raise its price and spoil its quality. 



18 AMERICAN TAXATION. 

duty formerly payable on teas exported to America is taken 
off; the place of collection is only shifted ; instead of the 
retention of a shilling from the draw-back ^^ here, it is three- 
pence custom paid in America.' All this, Sir, is very true. 
But this is the very folly and mischief of the act. Incredible 
as it may seem, you know that you have deliberately thrown 
away a large duty which you held secure and quiet in your 
hands, for the vain hope of getting one three-fourths less, 
through every hazard, through certain litigation, "^"^ and pos- 
sibly through war. 

18. Could anything be a subject of more just alarm to 
America, than to see you go out of the plain high-road of 
finance, and give up your most certain revenues and your 
clearest interests, merely for the sake of insulting your Col- 
onies ? Xo man ever doubted that the commodity of tea 
could bear an imposition of three-pence. But no commodity 
will bear three-pence, or will bear a jienny, when the gen- 
eral feelings of men are irritated, and two millions of jDCople 
are resolved not to pa3^ The feelings of the Colonies were 
formerly the feelings of Great Britain. Theirs were formerly 
the feelings of Mr. Hampden ^^ when called upon for the 
payment of twenty shillings. Would twenty shillings have 
ruined Mr. Hampden's fortune ? Xo ! but the payment of 
half twenty shillings, on the principle it was demanded, 
would have made him a slave. It is the weight of that pre- 
amble, of which you are so fond, and not the weight of the 
dutj', that the Americans are unable and unwilling to bear. 

19. It is then, Sir, uj)on thepr?Vzc//j('c of this measure, and 
nothing else, that we are at issue. It is a princij)le of politi- 

19. Drawback.— Drawbacks were given upon two different occasions. 
When tlie home manufactures were subject to any duty or excise, 
either tlie whole or a part of it was frequently drawn back upon their 
exportation ; and when foreign goods liable to a duty were imported in 
order to be exported again, either the whole or a part of this duty was 
sometimes given back upon such exportation.— Smith's Wealth of 
JVations, book iv. ch. i. •- 

20. Certain litigation.— In the general sense of quarreling, not in the 
special and more common one, of proceeding at laA\ . 

21. Hampden.— Reference is made to the patriot T>!^n ' r impden 
(1594-1648). The refusal of this celebrated mau to jiay ■' shij laoney" 
when illegally demanded by Charles I., is known to every strident of 
history. Consult ^lacaulay's Essait on Hampden, 



AMERICAN TAXATION. 1^ 



eal expediency. Your Act of 1767 asserts, f a* it is expe^ 
dient to raise a revenue in America ; your ^-^ ^^ '^^^1 ^^^^^f^ 
takes away that revenue, contradicts tlie Act of 1.6. , and, 
It'ometMng much stronger than words, asserts, that it is 
nott^'edient. It is a reflection upon your wisdom to per- 
^s in a solemn Parliementary declaration of the expediency 
of any object, for which, at the same time, you make no 
sorHf provision. And pray, Sir, let not this circums ance 
escape you ; it is very material ; that the preamb e of this 
act which we wish to repeal, is not dcdaratory of aright 
as some gentlemen seem to argue it ; it is only a recital of 
the exp:diency of a certain exercise of a right supposed 
already to have been asserted ; an exercise you are now con- 
tending for by ways and means, which you confess hough 
they were obeyed, to be utterly msuflicient for their 
purpose. You are therefore at this moment in the awkward 
situation of fighting for a phantom ; a quiddity; ^ thing hat 
wants, not only a substance, but even a name ; for a thing, 
which is neither abstract right, nor profitable enjoyment. 

20. They tell you, Sir, that your dignity is tied to it i 
know not how it happens, but this dignity of yours is a ter- 
rible incumbrance to you ; for it hasof late been ever at war 
with your interest, your equity, and every idea of your 
Dolicy Show the thing you contend for to be reason ; show 
ft to be common sense ; show it to be the means of attaining 
some useful end; and then lam content to allow it what 
di-nity you please. But what dignity is derived from the 
perseverance in absurdity, is more than ever I could discern 
The Honorable Gentleman has said well-indeed, m most 
of his qencral observations I agree with him-he says that 
this subject does not stand as it did formerly. Oh, certainly 
not ' Every hour you continue on this ill-chosen ground, 
youi difficulties thicken on you ; and therefore my conclu- 
sion is, remove from a bad position as quickly as you can. 
The disgrace, and the necessity of yielding, both of them, 
grow upon you every hour of your delay. 

21. Sir, the Honorable Gentleman having spoken what 
he thought necessary upon the narrow part of the subject, 



20 A3IERICAN TAXATION. 

I have given him, I hope, a satisfactory answer. He next 
presses me^ by a variety of direct challenges and oblique 
reflections to say something on the historical part. I shall, 
therefore, Sir, open myself fully on that important and 
delicate subject ; not for the sake of telling you a long stors*, 
but for the sake of the weighty instruction that, I flatter 
myself, will necessarily result from it. I shall not be longer, 
if I can help it, than so serious a matter requires. 

22. Permit me then. Sir, to lead your attention very far 
back ; back to the act of Navigation ;-^ the comer-stone of 
the policy of this country with regard to its Colonies. Sir, 
that policj' was, from the beginning, purely commercial ; 
and the commercial system was wholly restrictive. It was 
the sj'stem of a monopoly. Xo trade was let loose from that 
constraint, but merelj' to enable the Colonists to dispose of 
what, in the course of your trade, you could not take ; or to 
enable them to dispose of such articles as we forced upon 
them, and for which, without some degree of liberty, they 
could not pay. Hence all your specific and detailed enum- 
erations : hence the innumerable checks and counterchecks; 
hence that infinite variety of paper chains by which you 
bind together this complicated system of the Colonies. This 
principle of commercial monopoly runs through no less 
than twenty-nine acts of Parhament, from the year 1660 to 
the unfortunate period of 1764. 

23. In all those acts the system of conmaerce is estab- 
lished, as that from whence alone you proposed to make the 
Colonies contribute (I mean directly" and by the operation 
of your superintending legislative power\ to the strength 
of the empire. I venture to say, that during that whole 
period, a Parliamentary revenue from thence was never 

22. Next presses me.— We pass now to the second part of this speech. 
It is probably the best known section of all Burkes speeches and writ- 
ings. It bears marks of careful elaboration previous to delivery. 

2;J. Act of Navigation.— Passed by Cromwell in 16.51, with the design of 
taking the carrying trade out of the hands of the Dutch. It prohibited 
amongst other things the impjortation into England and her Colonies, 
by foreign vessels, of any commodities which were not the growth and 
manufacture of the countries to which these vessels belonged. The 
policy of this act, now totally repealed, was preserved in subsequent 
ones, 



AMERICAN TAXATION. 21 

once in contemplation. Accordingly, in all the number of 
laws passed with regard to the Plantations, the words which 
distinguish revenue laws, specifically as such, were, I think, 
premeditately avoided. I do not say, Sir, that a form of 
words alters the nature of the law, or abridges the power of 
the lawgiver. It certainly does not. However, titles and 
formal preambles are not always idle words ; and the 
lawyers frequently argue from them. I state these facts to 
show, not what was your right, but what has been your, 
settled policy.^* "^"^ 

24. Sir, they who are friends to the schemes of American 
revenue say, that the commercial restraint is full as hard a 
law for America to live under. I think so too. I think it, 
if uncompensated, to be a conditon of as rigorous servitude 
as men can be subject to. But America bore it from the 
fundamental act of Navigation until 1764. — Why ? Because 
men do bear the inevitable constitution of their original 
nature with all its infirmities. The act of Navigation at- 
tended the Colonies from their infancy ; ^^ grew with their 
growth and strengthened with their strength. They were 
confirmed in obedience to it, even more by usage than by 
law. They scarcely had remembered a time when they were 
not subject to such restraint. Besides, they were indemni- 
fied for it by a pecuniary compensation. Their monopolist 
happened to be one of the richest men in the world. By 
his immense capital, primarily employed, not for their 
benefit, but his own, they were enabled to proceed with 
their fisheries, their agriculture, their ship-building, in such 
a manner iu-. goi fa" the start of the slow languid operations 
of unassisted nature. Tliiy capital was a hot-bed to them. 
Notijing in the history of mankind is like their progress. 



24. Your right . . . your settled policy.— This is the key to Burke's 
whole argument on the American question. 

25. From th^ir infancy.— This iS not strictly correct. * On the contrary, 
the charters granted to the founders of the settlement in Virginia dis- 
tinctly empower the colonists to carry on a direct intercourse xvith foreign 
states. Nor were f hey slow to avail themselves of this permission ; for 
they had, as early as 1620, established tobacco warehouses in Middel- 
burg and Flushing.' The Navigation act of Cromwell and of Charles 
II. founded the monopoly system. 



22. AMERICAN TAXATION. 

For my part, I never cast an eye on their flourishing com- 
merce, and their cultivated and commodious life, but they 
seem to me rather ancient nations grown to perfection 
through a long series of fortunate events, and a train of 
successful industry, accumulating wealth in many centuries, 
than the Colonies of yesterday ; than a set of miserable out- 
casts, ^^ a few years ago not so much sent as thrown out, on 
the bleak and barren shore of a desolate wilderness three 
thousand miles from all civilized intercourse. 

25. All this was done by England, whilst England pur- 
sued trade, and forgot revenue. You not only acquired 
commerce, but you actually created the very objects of trade 
in America ; and by that creation you raised the trade of 
this kingdom at least four-fold. America had the compen- 
sation of your capital, which made her bear her servitude. 
She had another compensation, which you are now going 
to take away from her. She had, except the commercial 
restraint, every characteristic mark of a free peoj)le in all 
her internal concerns. She had the image of the British 
constitution. She had the substance. She was taxed by 
her own representatives. She chose most of her own magis- 
trates. She paid them all. She had in effect the sole dis- 
posaP" of her own internal government. This whole state 
of commercial servitude and civil liberty, taken together, is 
certainly not perfect freedom ; but comi3aring it with the 
ordinary- circumstances of human nature, it was a hajDpy 
and a liberal condition. 



New England; tne Catnoiics, tj < .1 .' . wnn inucn greater injnsuco, inaL 
>f Maryland; and the Quakers, tliMt ot Tennsylvauia. ' i:pon all these 
lifferent occasions,' says Ad;. in bmith. 'it was not the wisdom ami 
)olicv, but the disorder and l';;;«tk-e of the European <ioA er?imeuts 



26. Miserable outcasts.— The original relation between the govern- 
ment of the mother-country an >! ■' • Ne-.v- Kn^Umd Coloinsts was that 
of tyrant and refugee. The Pu . * . 1 , established the four f olonirs of 
New England; the Catholics, tj < .1 .'L with much greater injustice, thjit 
of."" " " - .. - .- . . .,. ,. ., - 

differei 

poll 

which peopled and cultivated America. 

27. Sole disposal, etc.— 'The Colony Assemblies had not only the 
legislative, but a part of the executive power. In Connecticut and 
Rhode Island they elected the Governor. In the other Colonies they 
appointed the revenue officers who collected the taxes imposed by 
those respective Assemblies, to whom those officers were immediately 
responsible. There is more equality, therefore, among the English 
Colonists, than among the inhabitants of the mother-country.'— Adam 
Smith's Wealth of Nations, book iv. ch. 7. 



AMERICAN TAXATION. 23 

26. Whotlur you were rip:ht or wronp: in establishing' the 
Colonies on tlu- i)rineiples of eonimercial monopoly, rather 
than on that of revenue, iH at this day a problem of mere 
epeeulation. You eannot have both by the same authority. 
To join together the restraints of an universal intt-rnal and 
external monopoly, with an universal internal and external 
taxation, is an unnatural union ; perfret uneompcnsattMl 
slaverj'. You liavc long since decided for yourself and 
them ; and you and they have prospered exceedingly under 
that decision. 

27. This nation, 8ir, never thought of <lcparting from 
that choice until the period immediately on the close of the 
last war. Then a scheme of government'* new in nuiny 
things seemed to have been adopted. T saw, or I thought I 
saw, several symptoms of a great change, whilst I sat in 
your gallery, a gmxl while Ix'fore I had the honor of a seat 
in this House. At that period the necessity was estaln 
lished'^'' of keeping up no less than twenty new regiments, 
with twenty colonels capable of si^ats in this House. Thia 
scheme was adopted with very general ai)plause from all 
sides, at the very time that, by your con(iuests in America, 
your danger from foreign attemi)ts in that i)art of the worUl 
was much lessened, or indeed rather quite over. When 
this huge increase of military establishment was resolved 
on, a revenue was to be found to sui)port so great a burden. 
Country gentlemen, the great i)atrons of economy,'" and the 
great resisters of a standing armed force, woubl not have 
entered with much alacrity into the vote for so large an<l .so 
expensive an army, if they had Inen verj' sure that they 
were to continue to pay for it. But hopes of another kind 



2S. Scheme of government. — Roforonoo is mado to the i)lan which was 
foriiu'd, and itsrxccution ln'trun, t«»al>oUsh the charters of the Colonics 
an(l"inalie tliom all r«>yal fiovcriuiioiits.' Sundry chapters in Ban- 
croft's Jliatorfi (tilth and sixth vohuncs of the old'odition) should he 
studied hy those who wish to understand this speech in all its 
hearings. 

2lt. Necessity was established. —The great accession of French terrl- 
;. • \ inhabited by French subjects in Lower Canada, certainly Justified 
.><'i:;e iuiTcasc of tlie military establishment. 

Patrons of economy.— Tlic cry afrainst standinp:armiesand corrupt 
iiditurc was a watchword of the country jtartv in the carlv jtart 
(• century. 



24 AMERICAN TAXATION. 

were held out to them ; and in particular, I well remember, 
that Mr. Townshend, in a brilliant harangue ^^ on this sub- 
ject, did dazzle them, by playing before their eyes the image 
of a revenue to be raised in America. 

28. Here began to dawn the first glimmerings of this 
new Colony system. It appeared more distinctly after- 
wards, when it was devolved upon a person to whom on 
other accounts, this country owes very great obligations. 
I do believe, that he had a very serious desire to benefit the 
public. But with no small studj- of the detail, he did not 
seem to have his view, at least equally, carried to the total 
circuit of our affairs. He generally considered his objects 
in lights ^2 ti^at were rather too detached. Whether the 
business of an American revenue was imposed upon him 
altogether ; whether it was entirely the result of his own 
speculation ; or, what is more probable, that his own ideas 
rather coincided with the instructions he had received; 
certain it is, that, with the best intentions in the world, he 
first brought this fatal scheme into fonn, and established it 
by act of Parliament. 

29. After the war,^^ and in the last years of it, the trade 
of America had increased far beyond the speculations of the 
most sanguine imaginations. It swelled out on every side. 

31. Townshend in a brilliant harangue. — 'Xo man in the House of 
Commons was thought to know America so well; no one was so re- 
solved on making a thorough change in its constitutions and govern- 
ment. "What schemes he will form," said the proprietary of Penn- 
sylvania (February 11, 1768), "we shall soon see." But there was no dis- 
guise about his schemes. He was always for making thorough work of 
it with the Colonies.' — Bancroft. 

32. Objects in light, etc.— Burke's intimacy with Sir Joshua Reynolds 
the great painter, should be remembered. The art of painting often 
furnished Burke with admirable illustrations. 'The works of malice 
and injustice are quite in another style. They are finished with a bold, 
masterly hand; touched as they are with the spirit of those vehement 
passions that call forth all our energies, whenever we oppress and per- 
secute.' 'A group of regicide and sacrilegious slaughter was indeed 
boldly sketched, but it was only sketched. It unhappily was left un- 
finished, in this great history -piece of the massacre of innocents. What 
hardy pencil of a great master will finish it,' etc. 

33. After the war.— The enforcement of the Navigation act had pre- 
ceded the Btamp act. The important trade in British manufactures 
which the English colonists carried on with those of France and Spain, 
was certainly against the letter of the Navigation act, though not, per- 
haps, against its spirit. The trade was afterwards allowed, though un- 
der duties that were virtually prohibitory. 



AMERICAN TAXATION. 25 

It filled all its proper channels to the brim. It overflowed 
with a rich redundance, and breaking its banks on the right 
and on the left, it spread out upon some places where it was 
indeed improper, upon others where it was only irregular. 
It is the nature of all greatness ^^ not to be exact ; and great 
trade will always be attended with considerable abuses. 
The contraband will always keep pace in some measure 
with the fair trade. It should stand as a fundamental 
maxim, that no vulgar precaution ought to be employed in 
the cure of evils, which are closely connected with the 
cause of our prosperity'. Perhai)s this great person turned 
his eyes somewhat less than was just towards the incredible 
increase of the fair trade ; and looked with something of 
too exquisite a jealousy towards the contraband. He cer- 
tainly felt a singular degree of anxiety on the subject ; and 
even began to act from that passion earlier than is com- 
monly imagined. For whilst he was first lord of the ad- 
miralty, though not strictly called upon in his official line, 
he presented a very strong memorial to the lords of the 
treasury, heavily complaining of the growth of the illicit 
commerce in America. 

30. Some mischief happened even at that time from this 
over-earnest zeal. Much greater hapi^ened afterwards, when 
it operated with greater power in the highest department 
of the finances. The bonds of the act of Navigation were 
straightened so much, that America was on the point of 
having no trade, either contrabrand or legitimate. They 
found, under the construction and execution so used, the 
act no longer tying, but actually strangling them. All 
this coming with new enumerations of commodities ; with 
regulations which in a manner put a stop to the mutual 
coasting intercourse of the Colonies : with the appointment 
of courts of admiralty ^^ under various improper circum- 

34. Nature of all greatness.— Compare the fine amplification of this by 
Erskine; 'it is the nature of everything that is great and useful, both 
in the animate and inanimate world, to be wild and irregular,' etc.. in 
the Speech for Stockdale (1789). » . , 

;i'). Courts of Admiralty.— \yere employed in enforcing the Naviga- 
tion act, so as to deprive the offenders of trial by jury. This injudi- 
cious proceeding touchedthe sensibilities of the Colonists perhaps more 
keenly than anything else. 



26 AMERICAN TAXATION. 

stances ; with a sudden extinction of the paper currencies ;^^ 
with a compulsory provision for the quartering of soldiers ; 
the i^eople of America thought themselves proceeded against 
as delinquents, or, at hest, as people under suspicion of de- 
linquency ; and in such a manner as, they imagined, their 
recent services in the war^Mid not at all merit. Any of 
these innumerable regulations, perhaps, would not have 
alarmed alone ; some might be thought reasonable ; the 
multitude struck them with terror. 

31. But the grand manoeuvre in that business of new 
regulating the Colonies, was the 15th act of the fourth of 
George the Third ; which, besides containing several of the 
matters to which I have just alluded, opened a new prin- 
ciple ; and here properly began the second period of the 
policy of this countrj^ with regard to the Colonies ; by which 
the scheme of a regular Plantation parliamentary revenue 
was adopted in theory, and settled in practice. A revenue 
not substituted in the place of, but superadded to, a 
monopoly ; which monopoly was enforced at the same time 
with additional strictness, and the execution put into mili- 
tary hands. 

32. This act, Sir, had for the first time the title of * grant- 
ing duties in the Colonies and Plantations of America ;' 
and for the first time it was asserted in the preamble, ' that 
it was just and necessary^ that a revenue should be raised 
there.' Then came the technical words of 'giving and 
granting ;' and thus a complete American revenue act was 
made in all the forms, and Avith a full avowal of the right, 
equity, policy, and even necessity of taxing the Colonies, 



36. Sudden extinction of paper currencies.— The colonial assemblies 
during the war had issued notes, which were made a legal tender. To 
remedy the inconvenience produced by their natural depreciation, 
Mr. Grenville passed an act which took away from them the nature of 
a legal tender. Most of the bullion of the Colonies being employed in 
the trade to England, the extinction of the paper currencies must have 
caused a general stopinige in trade. 

37. Recent services in the war.— The Colonies had entered warmly 
into the war against Franco, and such was their zeal, that of their own 
accord they advanced for carrying it on much larger sums than were 
allotted to their quota by the British Government. 



AMERICAN TAXATION. 27 

without any formal consent of theirs. There are contained 
also in the preamble to that act these very remarkable 
words — the Commons, etc.— 'being desirous to make some 
provision in the present session of Parliament towards rais- 
ing the said revenue. ' By these words it appeared to the 
Colonies, that this act was but the beginning of sorrow f^ 
that every session was to produce something of the same 
kind ; that we were to go on, from day to day, in charging 
them with such taxes as we pleased, for such a military 
force as w^e should think proper. Had this plan been pur- 
sued, it was evident that the provincial assemblies, in which 
the Americans felt all their portion of importance, and be- 
held their sole image of freedom, were ipso facto annihilated. 
This ill prospect before them seemed to be boundless in ex- 
tent, and endless in duration. Sir, they were not mistaken. 
The Ministry valued themselves when this act passed, and 
when they give notice of the Stamp Act, that both of the 
duties came very short of their ideas of American taxation. 
Great was the applause ^^ of this measure here. In England 
we cried out for new taxes on America, whilst they cried 
out that they were nearly crushed with those which the war 
and their own grants had brought upon them. 

33. Sir, it has been said in the debate, that when the first 
American revenue act (the Act in 1764, imposing the port 
duties) passed, the Americans did not object to the prin- 
ciple.*" It is true they touched it but very tenderly. It was 

38. Beginning of sorrows.— Cf. Matt. xxiv. 8. The student will notice 
that Burke frequently used impressive phrases of the Bible. They are 
woven into the warp and woof of those passages marked by grave 
simplicity. 

39. Great was the applause.— Throughout the country, public opinion 
was from first to last in favor of taxing America. Rockingham to 
Burke, Sept. 24, 1775: 'I see and lament that the generality of the na- 
tion are aiding and assisting in their own destruction ; and I conceive 
that nothing but a degree of experience of the evils can bring about a 
right judgment in the public at large.' 

40. Did not object to the principle.— It is far from being true that the 
Colonists 'did not object to the principle' of the Act of 1764; nor is Mr. 
Burke correct in saying that they 'touched it very tenderly.' The first 
Act of the British Parliament for the avowed purpose of raising a 
revenue in America was passed April 6, 1764. Within a month after 
the news reached Boston, the General Court of Massachusetts met, and 
on the 18th of June, 17(54, addressed a letter to their agent in England, 
giving him spirited and decisive instructions on the subject. Remoa- 



28 AMEBIC AN TAXATION. 

not a direct attack/^ They were, it is true, as yet novices ; 
as yet unaccustomed to direct attacks upon any of the rights 
of Parliament. The duties were port duties, like those they 
had heen accustomed to bear ; ^^ with this difference, that 
the title was not the same, the i^reamblc not the same, and 
the si)irit altogether unlike. But of what service is this ob- 
servation to the cause of those that make it ? It is a full 
refutation of the j^retence for their present cruelty to 
America ; for it shows, out of their own mouths, that our 
Colonies were backward to enter into the present vexatious 
and ruinous controversy. 

34. There is also another circulation abroad, (spread with 
a malignant intention, which I cannot attribute to those 
who say the same thing in this House,) that Mr. Grenville 
gave the Colony agents an option for their assemblies to tax 
themselves, which they had refused. I find that nmcli stress 
is laid on this, as a fact. However, it happens neither to be 
true nor possible. I will observe first, that Mr. Grenville 
never thought fit to make this apology for himself in the 
innumerable debates that were had upon the subject. He 
might have proposed to the Colony agents, that they should 
agree in some mode of taxation as the ground of an act of 
Parliament. But he never could have proposed that they 
should tax themselves on requisition, which is the assertion 
of the day. Indeed, Mr Grenville well knew, that the 
Colony agents could have no general powers to consent to 
it ; and they had no time to consult their assemblies for par- 
ticular powers, before he passed his first revenue act. If 
you compare dates, you will find it impossible. Burdened 
as the agents knew the colonies were at that time, they could 



strances were likewise sent from Massachusetts, Virginia and New 
York to the Privy Council. James Otis also published during this year 
his pamphlet against the right of rarliament to tax the Colonies, 
while unrepresented in the House of Commons. This was printed in 
London in 17(i5, about the time when the Stamp Act was passed. 

41. It was not a direct attack.— The opposition of the Colonists was 
not that direct calling in question of the power of Parliament to im- 
pose taxes wliicli was forced from them by the Stamp Act. 

42. Accustomed to bear.— The duties on rum, sugar, and molasses, im- 
ported from the West Indies; and on tobacco and indigo exported 
from the American Continent to any of the other plantations. 



AMERICAN TAXATION. 29 

not give the least hope of such grants. His own favorite 
governor ^^ was of opinion that the Americans were not then 
taxable objects. 

35. It is said no conjecture could be made of the dislike 
of the Colonies to the principle. This is as untrue as the 
other. After the resolution of the House, and before the 
passing of the stamp act, the Colonies of Massachusetts Bay 
and New York did send remonstrances, objecting to this 
mode of Parliamentary taxation. What was the conse- 
quence ? They were suiDpressed ; they were i^ut under the 
table, notwithstanding an order of council to the contrary, 
by the Ministry which composed the very council that had 
made the order : and thus the House proceeded to its busi- 
ness of taxing without the least regular knowledge of the 
objections which were made to it. But to give that House 
its due, it was not over-desirous to receive information, or to 
hear remonstrance. On the 15th of February, 1765, whilst 
the stamp act was under deliberation, they refused with 
scorn even so much as to receive four petitions presented 
from so respectable Colonies as Connecticut, Rhode Island, 
Virginia, and Carolina ; besides one from the traders of Ja- 
maica. As to the Colonies, they had no alternative left to 
them, but to disobey ; or to pay the taxes imposed by that 
Parliament which was not suffered, or did not suffer itself 
even to hear them remonstrate upon the subject. 

36. This was the state of the Colonies before his Majesty 
thought fit to change his Ministers. It stands upon no 
authority of mine. It is proved by uncontrovertible records. 
The Honorable Gentleman has desired some of us to lay our 
hands upon our hearts, and answer to his queries upon the 
historical part of this consideration ; and by his manner (as 
well as my eyes could discern it) he seemed to address him- 
self to me. 

37. Sir, I will answer him as clearly as I am able, and 
with great openness ; I have nothing to conceal. In the 

43. Own favorite Governor.— Sir Francis Bernard, Governor of Massa- 
chusetts. V^r- 



30 AMERICAN TAXATION. 

year sixty-five, being in a very private station, far enough 
from any line of business, and not liaving the honor of a 
seat in this House, it was my fortune, unknowing and 
unknown to the then Ministiy, by the intei-vention of a 
common friend,"** to become connected with a very noble 
person, and at the head of the treasury department. It was 
indeed in a situation of little rank and no consequence, suit- 
able to the mediocrity of my talents and pretensions. But 
a situation near enough to enable me to see, as well as others, 
what Avas going on ; and I did see in that noble j^erson such 
sound principles, such an enlargement of mind, such clear 
and sagacious sense, and such unshaken fortitude, as have 
bound me, as well as others much better than me, by an in- 
violable attachment to him from that time forward. Sir, 
Lord Rockingham very early in that summer received a 
strong representation from many Aveightj' English merchants 
and manufacturers, from governors of provinces and com- 
manders of men-of-war, against almost the whole of the 
American commercial regulations : and particularly with 
regard to the total ruin which was threatened to the Spanish 
trade. I believe. Sir, the noble Lord soon saw his way in 
this business. But he did not rashly determine against acts 
which it might be supposed were the result of much delib- 
eration. However, Sir, he scarcely began to open the 
ground, when the whole veteran body of office took the 
alarm. A violent out-cry of all was raised against any alter- 
ation. On one hand, his attempt was a direct violation of 
treaties and public law ; on the other, the act of navigation 
and all the corjDS of trade-laws were drawn up in array 
against it. 

38. The first step the noble Lord took, was to have the 
opinion of his excellent, learned, and ever lamented friend, 
the late Mr. Yorke, then Attornej^-General, on the point of 
law. When he knew that formally and officially, which in 
substance he had known before, he immediately dispatched 
orders to redress the grievance. But I will say it for the 



44. Common friend.— This expression should always be used instead 
of our vulgarism, V a mutual friend." 



AMERICAN TAXATION. 31 

then minister, he is of that constitution of mind, that I know 
he would have issued, on the same critical occasion, the very- 
same orders, if the acts of trade had been, as they were not, 
directly against him ; and would have cheerfully submitted 
to the equity of Parliament for his indemnity. 

30. On the conclusion of this business of the Si)anish 
trade, the news of the troubles on account of the stamp act 
arrived in England. It was not until the end of October 
that these accounts were received. No sooner had the sound 
of that mighty tempest reached us in England, than the 
whole of the then opposition, instead of feeling humbled by 
the unhapj)y issue of their measures, seemed to be infinitely 
elated, and cried out, that the Ministry, from envy to the 
glory of their predecessors, were prepared to repeal the stamp 
act. Near nine years after, the Honorable Gentleman takes 
quite opposite ground, and now challenges me to put my 
hand to my heart, and say, whether the Ministry had re- 
solved on the repeal till a considerable time after the meet- 
ing of Parliament. Though I do not very well know what 
the Honorable Gentleman wishes to infer from the admis- 
sion, or from the denial, of this fact, on which he so earnestly 
adjures me ; I do put my hand on my heart, and assure him, 
that they did not come to a resolution directly to repeal. 
They weighed this matter as its difficulty and importance 
required. They considered maturely among themselves. 
They consulted with all who could give advice or informa- 
tion. It was not determined until a little before the meeting 
of Parliament ; but it was determined, and the main lines 
of their own plan marked out, before that meeting. Two 
questions arose— (I hope I am not going into a narrative 
troublesome to the House — ) 

[A cry of, ' Go on, go on.'] 
. 40. The first of the two considerations was, whether the 
repeal should be total, or whether only partial ; taking out 
everything burdensome and productive, and reserving only 
an empty acknowledgment, such as a stamp on cards or 
dice. The other question was, on what principle the act 
should be repealed? On this head also two principles were 



32 AMERiCAlsr TAXATION. 

started. One, that the legislative rights of this country, with 
regard to America, were not entire, but had certain restric- 
tions and limitations. The other principle was, that taxes 
of this kind were contrary to the fundamental principles of 
commerce on which the Colonies were founded ; and con- 
trary to every idea of political equity ; by which equity we 
are bound, as much as possible, to extend the spirit and 
benefit of the British constitution to every part of the Brit- 
ish dominions. The option, both of the measure, and of the 
principle of repeal, was made before the session ; and I won- 
der how any one can read the King's speech at the opening 
of that session, without seeing in that speech both the repeal 
and the declaratory act very sufficiently crayoned out. 
Those who cannot see this can see nothing. 

41. Surelj^, the Honorable Gentleman will not think that 
a great deal less time than was then employed ought to have 
been spent in deliberation, when he considers that the news 
of the troubles did not arrive till towards the end of October. 
The Parliament sat to fill the vacancies on the 14th day of 
December, and on business the 14th of the following January. 

42. Sir, a partial repeal, or, as the hon ton of the court 
then was, a modification, would have satisfied a timid, un- 
systematic, procrastinating Ministrj^, as such a measure has 
since done such a Ministry. A modification is the constant 
resource of weak, undeciding minds. To repeal by the denial 
of our right to tax in the preamble, would have cut, in the 

*heroic style, the Gordian knot with a sword. Either measure 
would have cost no more than a day's debate. But when 
the total repeal was adopted ; and adopted, on principles of 
policy, of equity, and of commerce ; this plan made it neces- 
sary to enter into many and difficult measures. It became 
necessary to open a very large field of evidence commen- 
surate to these extensive views. But then this labor did 
knight's service. It opened the eyes of several to the true 
state of the American affairs ; *^ it enlarged their ideas ; it 

4"). American affairs.— Burke himself prohably knew more about 
America tluiu auy one in Enghuul. He hud read every accessible 
p,uthority on the subject at the commencement of the Seven Years' 



AMERICAN TAXATION. 33 

removed prejudices ; and it conciliated the opinions and af- 
fections of men. The noble Lord, who then took the lead 
in administration, my Honorable Friend under me, and a 
Right Honorable Gentleman, exerted the most laudable in- 
dustry in bringing before you the fullest, most impartial, 
and least garbled body of evidence that was ever produced 
to this House. I think the inquiry lasted in the committee 
for six weeks ; and, at its conclusion, this House, by an in- 
dependent, noble, spirited, and unexpected majority ; by a 
majority that will redeem all the acts ever done by majori- 
ties in Parliament ; in the teeth of all the old mercenary 
Swiss of state, ^^ in despite of all the speculators and augurs 
of political events, in defiance of the whole embattled legion 
of veteran pensioners and practised instruments of a Court, 
gave a total repeal to the stamp act, and (if it had been so 
permitted) a lasting peace to this whole empire. 

43. I state. Sir, these particulars, because this act of spirit 
and fortitude has lately been, in the circulation of the season, 
and in some hazarded declamations in this House, attributed 
to timidity, If, Sir, the conduct of Ministry, in proposing 
the repeal, had arisen from timidity with regard to them- 
selves, it would have been greatly to be condemned. Inter- 
ested timidity disgraces as much in the cabinet, as personal 
timidity does in the field. But timidity, with regard to 
the well-being of our country, is heroic virtue. The noble 
Lord who then conducted affairs, and his worthy colleagues, 
whilst they trembled at the prospect of such distresses as 
you have since brought upon yourselves, were not afraid 
steadily to look in the face that glaring and dazzling infiu- 
ence at which the eyes of eagles have blenched.*^ He 

War, when the attention of the public was strongly drawn to it. for his 
Account of the European Settlements in America (1757), which has 
been recognized from the first as a standard authority. 

46, Mercenary Swiss.— From the days of the battles of Granson and 
Morat in 1476, and Nanci in 1477, the Swiss mercenaries were highly 
valued throughout western Europe. Comp. Goldsmith's Traveller:— 

*No product here the barren hills afford. 

But man and steel, the soldier and his sword.' 

47. Influence at which the eyes of eagles have blenched.— Alluding to 
the famous 'eagle eye' of Chatham which was often compared to that 
of Conde, and his submission to influence in 1766. * Blench, to shrink, 
to start back, to give way ; not used:— Johnson. It occurs several times 
m Shakspeare, but is not used by Milton. 



34 AMERICAN TAXATrON. 

looked in the face one of the ablest, and, let me say, not the 
most scrupulous, oppositlo'ns, that perhaps ever was in this 
House ; and withstood it, unaided by even one of the usual 
supports of administration. He did this when he repealed 
the Stamp Act. He looked in the face a person he had long 
respected and regarded, and whose aid was then pai'ticu- 
larh' wanting ; I mean Lord Chatham. He did this when 
he passed the Declaratory act. 

44. It is now^ given out for the usual purposes by the 
usual emissaries, that Lord Eockinham did not consent to 
the rei)eal of this Act until he was bullied into it by Lord 
Chatham ; and the reporters have gone so far as publicly to 
assert, in an hundred companies, that the Honorable Gentle- 
man under the gallery, who proposed the repeal in the 
American committee, had another set of resolutions in his 
pocket directly the reverse of those he moved. These arti- 
fices of a desperate cause are at this time spread abroad, 
with incredible care, in every part of the town, from the 
highest to the lowest companies ; as if the industry of the 
circulation were to make amends for the absurdity of the 
report. 

45. Sir, whether the noble Lord is of a complexion to be 
bullied*^ by Lord Chatham, or bj' any man, I must submit 
to those who know him. I confess, when I look back to 
that time, I consider him as placed in one of the most try- 
ing situations in which, perhaps, any man ever stood. In 
the House of Peers there were very few of the Ministry, out 
of the noble Lord's own particular connection, that did not 
look to some other future arrangement, which warped his 
politics. There were in both Houses new and menacing 
appearances, that might very naturally drive any other, 
than a most resolute minister, from his measure or from his 
station. The household troops openly revolted. The aUies 



4S. Of a Complexion to be bullied.- ConPtantly used by Burke in this 
sense = bodily temperament. 'Their complexion, which might defy 
the rack, cannot go through such a trial.'— Letter to Member of the As- 
xembln. '( !ur complexion is such, that we are palled with enjoyment 
and stimulated with \\oi,e:— Appeal jrom Xeu- to Old Whujs He con- 
trasts moral with complexional timidity. 



AMERICAN TAXATION. 35 

of Ministry endeavored to undermine their credit, and to 
take ground that must be fatal to the success of the very 
cause which they would be thought to countenance. The 
question of the repeal was brought on by Ministry in the 
committee of this House, in the \^ery instant when it was 
known that more than one court negotiation was carrying on 
with the heads of the opposition. Everything, upon every 
side, was full of traps and mines. Earth below shook ; 
heaven above menaced ; all the elements of Ministerial 
safety were dissolved. It was in the midst of this chaos of 
plots and counter-plots ; it was in the midst of this compli- 
cated warfare against public opi)osition and private treach- 
ery, that the firmness of that noble person was put to the 
proof. He never stirred from his ground ; no, not an inch. 
He remained fixed and determined, in princii)le, in measure, 
and in conduct. He practised . no managements. He 
secured no retreat. He sought no apology. 

46. I will likewise do justice, I ought to do it, to the 
Honorable Gentleman who led us in this House. Far from 
the duplicity wickedly charged on him, he acted his part 
with alacrity and resolution. We all felt inspired by the 
example he gave us, down even to mj^self, the weakest in 
that phalanx. I declare for one, I knew well enough the 
true state of things ; but, in my life, I never came with so 
much spirits into this House. It was a time for a man to 
act in. We had powerful enemies ; but we had faithful and 
determined friends ; and a glorious cause. We had a great 
battle to fight ; but we had the means of fighting ; not as 
now, when our arms are tied behind us. We did fight that 
day, and conquer. 

47. I remember. Sir, with a melancholy pleasure, the 
situation of the Honorable Gentleman who made the motion 
for the repeal ; in that crisis, when the whole trading inter- 
est of this empire, crammed into your lobbies, with a trem- 
bling and anxious expectation, waited, almost to a winter's 
return of light, their fate from your resolutions. When, at 
length, you had determined in their favor, and your doors, 
thrown open, showed them the figure of their deliverer in 



36 AMERICAN TAXATION. 

the well-earned triumph of his important victory, from the 
whole of that grave multitude there arose an involuntary 
burst of gratitude^^ and transport. They jumped upon him 
like children on a long absent father. They clung about 
him as captives about their redeemer. All England, all 
America, joined to his applause. Nor did he seem insensi- 
ble to the best of all earthly rewards, the love and admira- 
tion of his fellow-citizens. Hope elevated and joy brightened 
his crcst.^ I stood near him ; and his face, to use the ex- 
sion of the Scrijiture of the first martyr* — his face was as if 
it had been the face of an angel. I do not know how others 
feel ; but if I had stood in that situation, I never would 
have exchanged it for all that kings in thair profusion could 
bestow. I did hope that that day's danger and honor would 
have been a bond to hold us all together for ever. But, alas ! 
that, with other pleasing visions, is long since vanished. 

48. Sir, this act of supreme magnanimity has been repre- 
sented, as if it had been a measure of an administration, 
that having no scheme of their own, took a middle line, 
pilfered a bit from one side and a bit from the other. Sir, 
they took no middle lines. They differed fundamentally 
from the schemes of both parties ; but they preserved the 
objects of both. They preserved the authority of Great 
Britain. They preserved the equity of Great Britain. They 
made the Declaratory Act ; they repealed the Stamp Act. 
They did hoth f idly; because the Declaratory Act was with- 
out qualification; and the repeal of the Stamp Act total. 
This they did in the situation I have described. 

49. Now, Sir, what will the adversary say to both these 
Acts? If the principle of the Declaratoiy Act was not 
good, the principle we are contending for this day is mon- 
strous. If the principle of the repeal was not good, why 
are we not at w^ar for a real, substantial, effective revenue? 



* Stephen— the first martyr for his Master's cause— was stoned to 
death. I^ee Acts vii. 

49. Burst of gratitude.— The Stamp Act was repealed March 18, 1765. 
"An event that caused more universal joy throughout the British 
dominions, than perhaps any other that can be remembered." 

5U. Hope elevated, etc.— Cf. Paradise Lost, ix. G33. 



AMERICAN TAXATION. 37 

If both were bad, why has this Ministry incurred all the 
inconveniencies of both and of all schemes ? Why have 
they enacted, repealed, enforced, yielded, and now attempt 
to enforce again ? 

50. Sir, I think I may as well now, as at any other time, 
speak to a certain matter of fact, not wholly unrelated to the 
question under your consideration. "We, who would per- 
suade you to revert to the ancient policy of this kingdom, 
labor under the effect of this short current f>hrase, which 
the court leaders have given out to all their corps, in order 
to take awaj' the credit of those who would prevent jou 
from that frantic war you are going to wage upon your 
Colonies. Their cant is this : 'All the disturbances in 
America have been created by the repeal of the Stamp Act.' 
I suppress for a moment my indignation at the falsehood, 
baseness, and absurdity of this most audacious assertion. 
Instead of remarking on the motives and character of those 
who have issued it for circulation, I will clearly lay before 
you the state of America, antecedently to that repeal ; after 
the repeal ; and since the renewal of the schemes of American 
taxation. 

51. It issaid,that the disturbances, if there were any, before 
the repeal, were slight ; and without difficulty or inconve- 
nience might have been suppressed. For an answer to this 
assertion I will send you to the great author and patron of 
the Stamp Act, who certainly meaning well to the authority 
of this country, and fully apprized of the state of that, made, 
before a repeal was so much as agitated in this House, the 
motion which is on your journals ; and which, to save the 
clerk the trouble of turning to it, I will now read to you. 
It was for an amendment to the address of the 17th of 
December, 1765 : 

* To express our just resentment and indignation at the 
outrages, tumults, and insurrections which have been 
excited and carried on in North America ; and at the 
resistance given, hy open and rebellious force, to the 
execution of the laws in that part of His Majesty's 
dominions, etc., etc. 



38 AMERICAN TAXATION. 

52. Here was certainly a disturbance preceding the re- 
peal ; such a disturbance as Mr. Grenville thought necessary 
to qualify by the name of an insurrection^ and the epithet of 
a rebellious force : terms much stronger than any by which 
those, who then supported his motion, have ever since 
thought proper to distinguish the subsequent disturbances 
in America. They were disturbances which seemed to him 
and his friends to justify as strong a promise of support, as 
hath been usual to give in the beginning of a war with the 
most powerful and declared enemies. When the accounts 
of the American governors came before the House, they 
appeared stronger even than the warmth of iDublic imagina- 
tion had painted them ; so much stronger, that the papers 
on your table bear me out in saying, that all the late dis- 
turbances, which have been at one time the Minister's 
motives for the repeal of five out of six of the new court 
taxes, and are now his pretences for refusing to repeal that 
sixth, did not amount — why do I comj)are them ? — no, not 
to a tenth part of the tumults and violence which prevailed 
long before the repeal of that; act. 

53. Ministry cannot refuse the authority of the com- 
mander-in-chief, General Gage, who, in his letter of the 4th 
of November, from New York, thus represents the state of 
things : 

' It is difficult to say, from the highest to the lowest, who 
has not been accessary to this insurrection^, either by 
writing or midual agreements, to oppose the act, by 
what they are pleased to term all legal opposition to it. 
Nothing effectual has been proposed, either to prevent 
or quell the tumult. The rest of the Provinces are in 
the same situation an to a positive refusal to take the 
stamps ; and threatening those who shall take them, 
to 2^(under and murder them; and this affair stands f>i 
cdl the Provinces, that unless the Act, from its own 
nature, enforce itself, nothing but a very considerable 
military force can do it.' 

54. It is remarkable. Sir, that the persons who formerly 
trumpeted forth the most loudly, the violent resolutions of 



AMERICAN TAXATION. 39 

assemblies ; the universal insurrections ; the seizing and 
burning the stamped papers ; the forcing stamp officers to 
resign their commissions under the gallows ; the rifling and 
pulling down of the houses of magistrates ; and the exx)ul- 
sion from their country of all who dared to write or speak a 
single word in defence of the powers of Parliament ; these 
very trumpeters are now the men that represent the whole 
as a mere trifle ; and choose to date all the disturbances from 
the repeal of the stamp act, which put an end to them. 
Hear your officers abroad, and let. them refute this shame- 
less falsehood, who, in all their correspondence, state the 
disturbances as owing to their true causes, the discontent of 
the people, from the taxes. You have this evidence in your 
own archives — and it will give you complete satisfaction ; if 
you are not so far lost to all Parliamentary ideas of informa- 
tion as rather to credit the lie of the day than the record of 
your own House. 

55, Sir, I have troubled you sufficiently with the state 
of America before the repeal. Now I turn to the Honorable 
Gentleman who so stoutlj^ challenges us to tell, whether, 
after the repeal, the Provinces were quiet ? This is coming 
home to the i)oint. Here I meet hin:i directly ; and answer 
most readily, The^ were quiet. And I, in my turn, challenge 
him to prove when, and where, and by whom, and in what 
numbers, and with what violence, the other laws of trade, 
as gentlemen assert, were violated in consequence of your 
concession ? or that even your other revenue laws were at- 
tacked ? But I quit the vantage-ground on which I stand, 
and where I might leave the burden of the i)roof upon him ; 
I walk down upon the open plain, and undertake to show, 
that they were not only quiet, but showed many unequiv- 
ocal marks of acknowledgment and gratitude. And to give 
him every advantage, I select the obnoxious Colony of Massa- 
chusetts Bay, which at this time is so heavily a culprit 
before Parliament — I will select their jiroceedings even under 
circumstances of no small irritation. For, a little impru- 
dently, I must say, Governor Bernard mixed in the udmiu- 



40 AMERICAN TAXATION. 

ist ration of the lenitive of the repeal no small acrimony aris- 
ing from matters of a separate nature. Yet see, Sir, the effect 
of that lenitive, though mixed with these bitter ingredients ; 
and how this rugged people can express themselves on a 
measure of concession. 

'If it is not in our power,' (say they in their address to 
Governor Bernard,) in so full a manner as will be ex- 
pected, to show our respectful gratitude to the mother- 
country, or to make a dutiful and affectionate return 
to the indulgence of the King and Parliament, it shall 
be no fault of ours ; for this we intend, and hope we 
shall be able fully to effect. ' 

56. Would to God that this temper had been cultivated, 
managed, and set in action ! other effects than those which 
we have since felt would have resulted from it. On the 
requisition for compensation to those who had suffered from 
the violence of the j^opulace, in the same address, they say 

'The recommendation enjoined bj^ Mr. Secretary Conway's 
letter, and in consequence thereof made to us, we will 
embrace the first convenient opportunity to consider 
and act upon. ' 

They did consider ; they did act upon it. They obeyed 
the requisition. I Hnow the mode has been chicaned upon ; 
but it was substantially obeyed ; and much better obeyed 
than I fear the Parliamentary requisition of this sesson will 
be, though enforced by all your rigor, and backed with all 
your power. In a word, the damages of popular furj" M^ere 
compensated by legislative gravity. Almost every other 
part of America in various ways demonstrated their grati- 
tude.^^ I am bold to say, that so sudden a calm recovered 
after so violent a storm is without parallel in history. To 
say that no other disturbance should happen from any other 
cause, is folly. But as far as appearances went, by the judi- 
cious sacrifice of one law, you procured an acquiescence in 
all that remained. After this experience, nobody shall per- 



51. Their gratitude.— .South Carolina voted Pitt a statue; and Vir- 
ginia a statue to the King, with an ©"belisk, Cf. Bancroft, v. 457. • 



AMERICAN TAXATION. 41 

siiade me, when a whole people are concerned, that acts of 
lenity are not means of conciliation. 

I hope the Honorable Gentleman has received a fair and 
full answer to his question. 

57. I HAVE done with the third period of your policy ; 
that of your repeal ; and the return of your ancient system, 
and your ancient tranquility and concord. Sir, this period 
was not as long as it was happy. Another scene was opened, 
and other actors appeared on the stage. The state, in the 
condition I have described it, was delivered into the hands 
of Lord Chatham— a great and celebrated name ; a name 
that keeps the name of this country respectable in every 
other on the globe. It may be truly called — 

Clarum et venerabile nomen 
Gentibus, ot multuin nostrse quod proderat urbi.52 

58. Sir, the venerable age of this great man, his merited 
rank, his superior eloquence, his splendid qualities, his emi- 
nent services, the vast space he fills in the eye of mankind ; 
and, more than all the rest, his fall from power, which, like 
death canonizes and sanctifies a great character, will not 
suffer me to censure any part of his conduct. I am afraid to 
flatter him ; I am sure I am not disposed to blame him. Let 
those, who have betrayed him by their adulation, insult him 
with their malevolence. But what I do not presume to cen- 
sure, I may have leave to lament. For a wise man, he 
seemed to me at that time to be governed too much by gen- 
eral maxims. I speak with the freedom of history, and I 
hope without offence. One or two of these maxims, flowing 
from an opinion not the most indulgent to our unhappy 
species, and surely a little too general, led him into measures 
that were greatly mischievous to himself ; and for that rea- 
son, among others, perhaps fatal to his country ; measures, 
the effects of which, I am afraid, are for ever incurable. 

52. A name illustrious and revered by nations, 

And rich in blessings for our country's good. 
The quotation is found in Lucan's PharsaUa, andforms a part of the 
character of Pompey, as put by the poet in the mouth of Cato. 



42 AMERICAN TAXATION. 

59. He made an administration,^'' so checkered and 
speckled ; he put together a piece of joinery, so crossly in- 
dented and whimsically dove-tailed ; a cabinet so variously 
inlaid ; such a piece of diversified mosaic ; such a tesselated 
pavement without cement ; here a bit of black stone, and 
there a bit of white ; patriots and courtiers ; King's friends 
and republicans ; whigs and tories ; treacherous friends and 
open enemies ; that it was indeed a very curious show ; but 
utterly unsafe to touch, and unsure to stand on. The col- 
leagues whom he had assorted at the same boards, stared at 
each other, and were obliged to ask,^* 'Sir, your name?' — 
* Sir, you have the advantage of me ' — ' Mr. Such-a-one ' — ' I 
beg a thousand pardons — ' I venture to say, it did so happen, 
that persons had a single office divided between them, who 
had never spoke to each other in their lives, until they found 
themselves, they knew not how, pigging together,^^ heads 
and points, in the same truckle-bed.^^ - 

60. Sir, in consequence of this arrY gement, having put 
so much the larger part of his enemies and opposers into 
power, the confusion was such, that his own principles could 
not possibly have any effect or influence in the conduct of 
affairs. If ever he fell into a fit of the gout, or if any other 
cause withdrew him from public cares, principles directly the 
contrary were sure to predominate. When he had executed 
his plan, he had not an inch of ground to stand upon. When 
he had accomplished his scheme of administration, he was 
no longer a minister. 



53. This passage has been called a specimen of " dictionarj' elo- 
quence." 

54. Were obliged to ask.— This dramatic manner must have been fre- 
quent in Burkes speeches, though there are naturally few traces of it 
in those which he prepared for the press. 

55. Rigging together.— Lying huddled together, like pigs. One of the 
vulgarisms which, in the opinion of critics, too often disfigure Burke's 
pages. 

56. Heads and points in the same truckle-bed.— Supposed to allude to 
the Right Honorable Lord North and George Cooke, who were made 
joint paymasters in the summer of 1776, on the removal of the Rock- 
ingham administration. As a handful of pins shaken together will be 
found to have heads and points conP"^ed, so two persons get more 
space in a narrow bed by lying opposite Avays. Cf. Erskine, Speech for 
Bailfic: 'Insulated passages, culled out and set heads and points in 
their Avretched affidavits.' 



AMERICAN TAXATION. 43 

61. When his face was hid" but for a moment, his whole 
system was on a wide sea, without chart or compass. The 
gentlemen, his particular friends, who, with the names of 
various departments of ministry, were admitted to seem as 
if they acted a part under him, with a modesty that becomes 
all men, and with a confidence in him, which was justified, 
even in its extravagance, by his superior abilities, had never, 
in any instance, presumed upon any opinion of their own. 
Deprived of his guiding influence,^^ they were whirled 
about, the sport of every gust, and easily driven into any 
port ; and as those who joined with them in manning the 
vessel were the most directly opposite to his opinions, 
measures, and character, and far the most artful and most 
powerful of the set, they easily prevailed, so as to seize upon 
the vacant, unoccupied, and derelict minds of his friends ; 
and instantly they turned the vessel wholly out of the 
course of his policy. As if it were to insult as well as to be- 
tray him, even long/iKore the close of the first session of his 
administration, when everything was publicly transacted, 
and with great parade, in his name, they made an act de- 
claring it highly just and expedient to raise a revenue in 
America. For even then, Sir, even before this splendid orb 
was entirely set,^^ and while the western horizon was in a 
blaze with his descending glory, on the opposite quarter of 
the heavens arose another luminary, and, for his hour, be- 
came lord of the ascendant. 

62. This light too is passed and set for ever. You under- 
stand, to be sure,^" that I speak of Charles Townshend,^^ 
officially the re-producer of this fatal scheme ; whom I can- 



57. When his face was hid.— Isaiah liv. 8. Pitt's face was hid for three 
consecutive years, 

58. Deprived of his 'guiding influence.— Macaulay thinks that on the 
whole, ' the worst administration which has governed England since 
the Revolution was that of George Grenville.' 

59. For even then, Sir, even before, etc.— This passage is acknowledged 
to contain the most gorgeous image in modern oratory. Burke perhaps 
borrowed the germ of it from Smollett's Humphrey Clinker. 

60. To be sure.— Used as we now use "of course." 

61. I speak of Charles Towns' ^nd.— With this affectionate panegyric 
should be compared the justei portraiture of Horace Walpole, in his 
Memoirs, who would rank him with Churchill's 'Men void of 
Principle, etc. 



44 AMERICAN TAXATION. 

not even now remember without some degree of sensibility. 
In truth, Sir, he was the delight and ornament of this 
House,*'^ and the charm of every private society which he 
honored with his presence. Perhaps there never arose in 
this country, nor in any country, a man of a more pointed 
and finished wit ; and (where his passions were not con- 
cerned) of a more refined, exquisite, and penetrating judg- 
ment. If he had not so great a stock, as some have had who 
flourished formerly, of knowledge long treasured up, he 
knew better by far, than any man I ever was acquainted 
with, how to bring together, within a short time, all that 
was necessary to establish, to illustrate, and to decorate that 
side of the question he supported. He stated his matter 
skillfullv and powerfully. He particularly excelled in a most 
luminous explanation and display of his subject. His style 
of argument was neither trite and vulgar, nor subtle and 
abstruse. He hit the House just between wind aud water.^ 
And not being troubled with too anxious a zeal for any 
matter in question, he was never more tedious, or more 
earnest, than the pre-conceived opinions and present temper 
of his hearers required ; to whom he was always in perfect 
unison. He conformed exactly to the temper of the House ; 
and he seemed to guide, because he was always sure to fol- 
low it. 

63. I beg pardon. Sir, if, when I speak of this and of 
other great men, I appear to digress in saying something of 
their characters. In this eventful history of the revolutions 
of America, the characters of such men are of much impor- 
tance. Great men are the guide-posts and land-marks in 
the state. The credit of such men at court, or in the nation, 
is the sole cause of all the public measures. There are many 
young members in the House who never saw that prodigy, 
Charles Townshend : nor of course know what a ferment he 



62. The delight and ornament of this House.— 'It was Garrick writing 
and acting extempore scenes of Congreve." — Walpole. . 

6;3. Between wind and water.— When a ship heels over to leeward a 
part of her bottom is uncovered. An attacking enemy bearing down 
on the wind naturally aims at this strip along her side, which is 'be- 
tween wind aud water.' 



AMERICAN TAXATION. 45 

was able to excite in everything by the violent ebullition of 
his mixed virtues and failings. For failings he had un- 
doubtedly — many of us remember them ; we are this day 
considering the effects of them. But he had no failings which 
were not owing to a noble cause ; to an ardent, generous, 
perhaps an immoderate, passion for fame ; a passion which 
is the instinct of all great souls. He worshiped that god- 
dess wheresoever she appeared ; but he paid his particular 
devotions to her in her favorite habitation, in her chosen 
temple, the House of Commons. Besides the characters of 
the individuals that compose our body, it is impossible, Mr. 
Speaker, not to observe that this House has a collective 
character of its own. That character too, however imper- 
fect, is not unamiable. Like all great public collections of 
men, you possess a marked love of virtue, and an abhorrence 
of vice. But among vices, there is none which the House 
abhors in the same degree with obstinacy. Obstinacy, Sir, 
is certainly a great vice ; and in the changeful state of 
political affairs it is frequently the cause of great mischief. 
It happens, however, very unfortunately, that almost the 
whole line of the great and masculine virtues, constancy, 
gravity, magnanimity, fortitude, fidelity, and firmness, are 
closely allied to this disagreeable quality, of which you have 
so just an abhorrence ; and, in their excess, all these virtues 
very easily fall into it. He, who paid such a punctilious at- 
tention to all your feelings, certainly took care not to shock 
them by that vice which is the most disgustful to you. 

64. That fear of displeasing those who ought most to be 
pleased, betrayed him sometimes into the other extreme. 
He had voted, and, in the year 1765, had been an advocate, 
for the Stamp Act. Things and the disposition of men's 
minds were changed. In short, the Stamp Act began to be 
no favorite in this House. He therefore attended at the 
private meeting, in which the resolutions moved by a Right 
Honorable Gentleman were settled ; resolutions leading to 
the repeal.^ The next day he voted for that repeal and 



64. Leading to the Repeal.— The resolutions embraced also the 
principle of the Declaratory Act, without which it is not probable that 



46 AMERICAN TAXATION^ 

he would have spoken for it too, if an illness had not pre- 
vented it. 

C5. The very next session, as the fashion of this world ^ 
passeth away, the repeal began to be in as bad an odor in 
this House as the Stamp Act had been in the session before. 
To conform to the temper which began to prevail, and to 
prevail most amongst those most in power, he declared, 
very early in the winter, that a revenue must be had out of 
America. Instantly he was tied down to his engagements 
by some. Mho had no objection to such experiments, when 
made at the cost of persons for whom they had no particular 
regard. The whole body of courtiers drove him onward. 
They always talked as if the King stood in a sort of 
humiliated state, until something of the kind should be done. 

60. Here this extraordinary man, then Chancellor of the 
Exchequer, found himself in great straits.®^ To please uni- 
versally was the object of his life ; but to tax and to please, 
no more than to love and to be wise, is not given to men. 
However, he attempted it. To render the tax palatable to 
the partisans of American revenue, he made a preamble 
stating the necessity of such a revenue. To close with the 
American distinction, this revenue was external or port- 
duty ; but again, to soften it to the other party, it was a duty 
oisujjjili/. To gratify the Colonists, it was laid on British 
manufactures ; to satisfj^ the mei^hants of Britian, the duty 
was trivial, and (except that on tea, which touched only the 
devoted East India Company) on none of the grand objects 
of commerce. To counterwork^^ the American contraband, 
the duty on tea was reduced from a shilling to three-pence. 



Townshend would have supported them. "The Stamp Act," says 
Macauhiy, "was indefensible, not because it was beyond the constitu- 
tional competence of Parliament, but because it was unjust and im- 
iwlitic, sterile of revenue, and fertile of discontent." 

65. Fashion of this world.— Cf. 1 Cor. vii. 31; 1 John ii. 17. 

66. In great straits.— Townshend had laughed at the weakness of the 
Rockingham ministry, but his own I 'tessellated' ministry was the 
first since the Revolution to endure the disgrace of being defeated on a 
Money bill. 

67. To counterwork.— Properly a military term, meaning to raise 
works in opposition to those of the enemy. To^te's Essay on Man, ii,239; 

' Tbat counterworks each folly and caprice.' 



AMERICAN TAXATION. 47 

But to secure the favor of those who would tax America, 
the scene of collection was changed, and, with the rest, it 
was levied in the Colonies. What need I say more? This 
fine-spun scheme had the usual fate of all exquisite policy. 
But the original plan of the duties, and the mode of execu- 
ting that plan, both arose singly and solely from a love of our 
applause. He was truly the child of the House. He never 
thought, did, or said anything, but with a view to you. He 
every day adapted himself to your disposition ; and adjusted 
himself before it, as at a looking-glass. 

67. He had observed that several persons, infinitely his 
inferiors In all respects, had formerly rendered themselves 
considerable in this Hous by one method alone. They were 
a race of men^® (I hope in God the species is extinct) who, 
when they rose in their place, no man living could divine, 
from any known adherence to parties, to opinions, or to 
principles ; from any order or system in their politics ; or 
from any sequel or connection in their ideas, what part they 
were going to take in any debate. It is astonishing how 
much this uncertainty, especially at critical times, called 
the attention of all parties on such men. All eyes were fixed 
on them, all ears open to hear them ; each party gaped, and 
looked alternately for their vote, almost to the end of their 
speeches. While the House hung in this uncertaintj^ now 
the Hear-himH^^ rose from this side — now they rebellowed 
from the other ; and that party, to whom they fell at length 
from their tremulous and dancing balance, always received 
them in a tempest of applause. The fortune of such men 
was a temptation too great to be resisted by one, to whom a 
single whiff of incense withheld gave much greater pain, 
than he received delight in the clouds of it, which daily rose 
about him from the prodigal superstition of innumerable 

68. Race of men.— The class known in Parliamentary slang as 'out- 
siders,' ' loose fish,' etc. Or, by the transfer of an epithet formerly ap- 
propriated to electors, 'independent' members. An 'independent' 
member has been described as one who can never be depended on. 
Such men have naturally ever been unpopular with the organizers of 
parties. 

69. The Hear-hims.— The 'Hear him, hear him' Of applauding 
auditors ims jiow i)ecome, 'Hear, hear,' 



48 AMERICAN TAXATION. 

admirers. He was a candidate for contradictory honors; 
and his great aim was to make those agree in admiration of 
him who never agreed in anything else. 

68. Hence arose this unfortunate act, the subject of this 
day's debate ; from a disposition which, after making an 
American revenue to please one, rej^ealed it to please others, 
and again revived it in hopes of pleasing a third, and of 
catching something in the ideas of all. 

69. This revenue act of 1767 formed the fourth period of 
American policy. How we have fared since then— what 
woful variety of schemes have been adopted ; what enforc- 
ing, and what repealing ; what bullying, and what submit- 
ting ; what doing, and undoing ; what straining, and what 
relaxing ; what assemblies dissolved for not obeying, and 
called again without obedience ; what troops sent out to 
quell resistance, and on meeting that resistance, recalled ; 
what shiftings, and changings, and jumblings of all kinds of 
men at home, which left no possibilitj" of order, consistency, 
vigor, or even so much as a decent unitj' of color in any one 
public measure — It is a tedious, irksome task. Mj^ duty may 
call me to open it out some other time ; on a former occa- 
sion '° I tried your temper on a part of it ; for the present I 
shall forbear. 

70. After all these changes and agitations, '^^ your imme- 
diate situation upon the question on your paper is at length 
brought to this. You have an act of Parliament, stating, 
that 'it is expedient to raise a revenue in America.' By a 
partial repeal you annihilated the greatest part of that rev- 
enue, which this preamble declares to be so expedient. You 

70. On a former occasion.— In moving his eight resolutions relating to 
the disorders in Nortli America, May 8, 1/vO. 

71. After all these changes and agitations.— The speech is here summed 
up with great force and perspicuity. The peroration, 'If you do not 
fall in, etc.,' which immediately follows, continues this style, in argu- 
ments of a more general character. Of these arguments Mr. Hazlitt 
says, they are ' so sensible, so moderate, so wise and beautiful, that I 
cannot resist the temptation of copying them out, though I did not at 
first intend it.' The peroration is a brilliant specimen of direct appeal. 
Vehemently as the power is exerted, it is done so easily and tem- 
perately, as to suggest an infinite fund in store. The words are elo- 
quent, but the eloquence appears to reside not in them but in the 
subject. 



AMERICAN TAXATION. 49 

have substituted no other in the place of it. A Secretary of 
State has disclaimed, in the King's name, all thoughts of 
such a substitution in future. The principle of this dis- 
claimer goes to what has been left, as well as what has been 
repealed. The tax which lingers after its companions mili- 
tates with the assurance authentically conveyed to the Col- 
onies ; and is an exhaustless source of jealousy and animosity. 
On this state, which I take to be a fair one ; not being able 
to discern any grounds of honor, advantage, peace, or power, 
for adhering, either to the act or to the preamble, I shall 
vote for the question which leads to the repeal of both. 

71. If you do not fall in with this motion, then secure 
something to fight for, consistent in theory and valuable in 
practice. If you must employ your strength, employ it to 
uphold you in some honorable right, or some profitable 
wrong. If you are apprehensive that the concession recom- 
mended to 3^ou, though proper, should be a means of draw- 
ing on you further but unreasonable claims, — why then em- 
ploy your force in supporting that reasonable conception 
against those unreasonable demands. You will employ it 
with more grace ; with better effect ; and with great proba- 
ble concurrence of all the quiet and rational people in the 
provinces ; who are now united with, and hurried away by, 

j the violent ; having indeed different dispositions, but a 
' common interest. If you apjirehend that on a concession 
you shall be pushed by metaphj^sical process to the extreme 
lines, and argued out of your whole authority, my advice is 
this ; when you have recovered your old, your strong, your 
tenable position, then face about— stop short — do nothing 
more— reason not at all — oppose the ancient policy andprac- 
j tice of the empire, as a rampart against the speculations of 
innovators on both sides of the question ; and you will stand 
on great, manly, and sure ground. On this solid basis ^^ fix 

72. On this solid basis.— Alludinpr to the famous remark of Archim- 
edes, to which Burke often appears to have had recourse as an 
illustration in his parliamentary speeches. It must have been after 
some such passage as this that Lord John Townshend exclaimed aloud, 
Heavens ! what a man this is ! Where could he acquire such transcendent 
powers f 



50 AMERICAN TAXATION. 

your machines, and they will draw worlds towards ymi. 
Recover your old ground, and your old tranquility-try it- 
I am persuaded the Americans will compromise with y'.^ 
When confidence is once restored, the odious and suspicious 
sicmmumjus'^ will perish of course. The spirit of practica- 
bility, of moderation, and mutual convenience, will never 
call in geometrical exactness as the arbitrator of an amicable 
settlement. Consult and follow your experience. Let not 
the long story, with which I have exercised your patience, 
prove fruitless to your interests. ^ 

72. For my part, I should choose (if I could nave my 
wish) that the proposition of the Honorable Gentleman for 
the repeal could go to America without the attendance of the 1 
penal bills. Alone I could ahnost answer for its success. I | 
cannot be certain of its reception in the bad company it may I 
keep Insucliheterogeneousassortments, the most innocent 
person will lose the effect of his innocency. Though you 
should sent out this angel of peace, yet ,mi are sending out 
a destroying angel -^ too : and what would be the effect of the 
conflct of these two adverse spirits, or which would predom- 
nate in the end, is what I dare not say : ^^^^^^ 
measures would cause American passion to subside, or the 
severe would increase its fury All this is in the ^^nd of 
P^vidence. Yet now, even now, I — \-;;^^;^\;:;,*^^ 
prevailing virtue and efficacious operation of lenity though 
workin<^ hi darkness, and in chaos, m the midst of all this 
TnaW and turbii combination : I should hope it might 
produce order and beauty in the end. 

73. Letus,Sir^^mbrace^o^^ 

injuria i^lo^t in 5)ntiquit> . , ^hat mei pyi ^..^.^_, ^ij,eau!.»> 

has obtained, by its «^ents, tl e tiUe ot tl^ 1 ^ ^^^ C9nftseation 
compares the. Wtamp Actj ith Acts ^^^^^^ ,^ 

74. Destroying angel.— 1 Chron.xxi.i^. appeal is said to ;l^ 



it at will. 



.MERICAN TAXATION. 51 

end this session. i)o you mean to tax America, and to draw 
a productive revenue from thence? If you do, speak out ; 
name, fix, ascertaiu this revenue ; settle its quantity ; define 
its objects ; x>rovido for its collection ; and then fight when 
you have somethint-f to fight for. If you murder — rob ! if 
you kill — take possession ! and do not appear in the character 
of madmen, as well as assassins, violent, vindictive, bloody, 
and tyrannical, without an object. But may better counsels 
guide you ! 

74. Again, and again, revert to your own principles — 
Seek Peace, and ensue it ^''— leave America, if she has taxable 
matter in her, to tax herself. I am not here going into the 
distinctions of rights, not attempting to mark their bound- 
aries. I do not enter into these metaphysical distinctions ; 
I hate the very sound "^ of them. Leave the Americans as 
they anciently stood, and these distinctioi^, born of our 
unhappy contest, will die along with it. They and we, and 
their and our ancestors, have been happy under that system. 
Let the memory of all actions, in contradiction to that good 
old mode, on both sides, be extinguished for ever. Be con- 
tent to bind America by laws of trade ; you have always 
done it. Let this be your reason for binding their trade. 
Do not burden them by taxes ; you were not used to do so 
from tlie beginning. Let this be your reason for not taxing. 
These are the arguments of states and kingdoms. Leave 
the rest to the schools ; for there only they may be discussed 
with safety. But, if intemperately, unwisely, fatally, you 
sophisticate and poison the very source of government, by 
urging subtle deductions, and consequences odious to those 
you govern, from the unlimited and illimitable nature of 
supreme sovereignty, you will teach them by these means 
to call that sovereignty itself in question. When you drive 



76. Seek peace and ensue it.— Ps. xxxiv. 14. A favorite quotation of 

77. I hate the very sound.— Burke, says Bentham, had good cause to 
nate metapii ysies ; Tlie power he trusted to was oratory, rhetorir, the art 
onnisrepr.'si'ntation, the art of misdirecting the judgment by agitat- 
ingtuul iDtlaming the passions. Others have accused himofmeta- 
phj =?i<jal subUeties. 



52 AMERICAN TAXATION 

him hard, the boar wiU surely turn upon the huntei«. j . 
that sovereignty and their freedom cannot be reconciled, 
which will they take ? They will cast your sovereignty -n 
vour face. Nobody ^yill be argued into slavery .^^ Sir let t , . 
gentlemen on the other side call forth all their ability ; let 
the best of them get up, and tell me, what one character of 
liberty '' the Americans have, and Avhat one brand of slavery 
they are free from, if they are bound in their property and 
industry by all the restraints you can imagine on commerce, 
and at the same time are made pack-horses of every tax you 
choose to impose, without the least share in granting them 
When they bear the burdens of unUmited monopoly, will 
you bring them to bear the burdens of unlimited revenue 
too*^ The Englishman in America will feel that this is 
slavery-that it is ^e^ai slavery, will be no compensation, 
either to his feelings or his understanding. 

75. A noble Lord,^o who spoke some time ago, is full ot 
the fire of ingenuous youth ; and when he has modeled the 
idL^of a li/ely imagination by further ^Ver^^^ 
be an ornament to his country in either House. He has said 
that the Americans are our children, and how can the> re- 
volt against their parent? He says, thatlf they are not free 
In hefr present state, England is not free ; because Man- 
ches te •, and other considerable places, are not represented. 
Sot. ;, because some towns in England are not repre- 
sented America is to have no representative at all They 
r. ou; children ; but when children ask for bread,- we are ^ 

Z f o c^ve a stone Is it because the natural resistance of 
"ht's'Ind t"^^^^^^^^ mutations of thne, hinder our 
S^fnment, or any scheme of ^-ernmen,^^^^^^^ 
more than a sort of approximation to the ^^S^*- ^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
7^ +1 .f thp f Colonies are to recede from it mhniteij . 

^^?' Whifone'character of Uberty.-In the primary si - ^ of a 

■m-irk •! staBip' — Johnson. 

"^^ NobieLoJd.-LordCarmothen. 

81. Ask for bread —Matt, vu, y. 



r 



AMERICAN TAXATION. 53 

and to reflect with a true filial resemblance the beauteous 
countenance of British liberty ; are we to turn to them the 
shameful parts of our Constitution ? are we to give them our 
weakness for their strength ? our opprobrium for their glory? 
and the slough of slavery, which we are not able to work 
off, to serve them for their freedom? 

76. If this be the case, ask yourselves this question. Will 
they be content in such a state of slavery ? If not, look to the 
consequences. Reflect how you are to govern a people, w ho 
think they ought to be free, and think they are not. Your 
scheme yields no revenue ; it yields nothing but discontent, 
disorder, disobedience ; and such is the state of America, 
that after wading up to your eyes in blood, you could only 
end just where you begun ; that is, to tax where no revenue 
is to be found, to — my voice fails me ; my inclination indeed 
carries me no farther — all is confusion beyond it. 

77. On this business of America, I confess I am serious, 
even to sadness. I have had but one opinion concerning it 
since I sat, and before I sat, in Parliament. The noble Lord^^ 
will, as usual, probably attribute the part taken by me and 
my friends in this business, to a desire of getting his place. 
Let him enjoy this happy and original idea. If I deprived 
him of it, I should take away most of his wit, and all his 
argument. But I had rather bear the brunt of all his wit, 
and indeed blows much heavier, than stand answerable to 
God for embracing a system that tends to the destruction of 
some of the very best and fairest of his works. But I know 
the map of England, as well as the noble Lord, or as any 
other person ; and I know that the w^ay I take is not the 
road to preferment. My excellent and honorable friend 
under me^ on the floor has trod that road with great toil for 
upwards of twenty years together. He is not yet arrived at 
th< .oble Lord's destination. However, the tracks of my 
NVi 1 i iiy friend are those I have ever wished to follow ; be- 
ca ise I know they lead to honor. Long may we tread the 
eanje road together; whoever may accompany us, or who- 

KJ. Moble Lord.— Lord North. 

8i. Friend under me. — Mr.Dowdeswell. 



64 AMERICAN TAXATION. 

ever may laugh at us on our journey ! I honestly and 
solemnly declare, I have in all seasons adhered to the system 
of 1766, for no other reason, than that I think it laid deep in 
your truest interests ; and that, by limiting the exercise, it • 
fixes, on the firmest foundations, a real, consistent, well- 
grounded authority in Parliament. Until you come back to 
that system, there will be no peace for England. 



TEST QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW. 

1. "Who was Edmund Burke? 

2. When and where was he born? 

3. What famous men of his day were born in Ireland? 

4. Mention the names of other celebrated men and women who were 
natives of the " Emerald Isle." 

5. What can you say of Burke's early education ? 

6. To what city did he go while a young man, and for .what purpose? 

7. What profession did he adopt, and with what success?. 

8. How did he employ his leisure time? 

9. What was his first literary work? 

10. What can you say of his " Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful?" 

11. On what publication did he now begin literary work? 

12. What can you say of his subsequent work for the "Annual 
Register?" 

13. What standing in the literary world did this give Burke? 

14. What personal traits also helped the futvire orator? 

15. With what famous men did he now begin to associate? 

16. How old was Burke when he entered Parliament? 

17. What subordinate positions in public life had he held which in- 
troduced him. to influential men? 

18. In a general way. what can you say of Burke's subsequent share 
in the political struggles of the English Parliament? 

19. What policy did he pursue with reference to the American 
Colonies? 

20. Give the titles of his two great speeches in support of this policy. 

21. What part did Burke have in the impeachment of Warren 
Hastings? 

22. When did the great orator retire from Parliament? 

23. What domestic calamity probably shortened his life? 

24. What famous letter did Burke write a few years before his death? 

25. How old was he when he died? 

26. In a general way, give the marked characteristics of his oratory. 

27. What can you say of Burke's character as a man ? 

28. Did his personal integrity and high sense of honor give additional 
power to his oratory ? 

29. Why was not Burke a popular orator? 

30. Give a short account of his personal appearance. 

31. How does the speech on "American Taxation" compare with his 
other oratorical efforts? 

32. Give some of the historical facts which led to this speech. 

33. What was the state of the American Colonies at this time? 

34. What other great men and orators in Parliament at this time 
took an active part in these political struggles? 

35. How do Burke's speeches compare in oratorical skill and learn- 
ing with other speeches of his time? 

36. Why are they read and studied after a hundred years, while the 
speeches of Pitt, Sheridan and others are rarely read? 

'■■T. T{.i.(at from memory several famous selections from Burke, 
"ii liUve become a part of our literature. 



SELECTIONS TO COMMIT TO MEMORY. 

Good order is the foundation of all good things. 

The arguments of tyranny are as contemptible as its force is dreadful 

Some persons, by hating vice too much, come to love men too little. 

True humility is the low, but deep and firm foundation of all real 
virtue. 

The dignity of every occupation wholly depends upon the quantity 
and the kind of virtue that may be exerted in it. 

The blood of man should never be shed but to redeem the blood of 
man. It is well shed for our family, for our friends, for our God, for our 
country, for our kind. The rest is vanity ; the rest is crime. 

J» He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our 
skill. 

Rage and frenzy will pull down more in half an hour, than prudence, 
deliberation and foresight can build up in a hundred years. 

It can not be too often repeated, line upon line, precept upon precept, 
until it comes into the currency of a proverb, to innovate is not to 
reform. 

What is liberty without wisdom and without virtue? It is the great- 
est of all possible evils ; for il is folly, vice and madness, without tuition 
or restraint. 

Those who execute public pecuniary trusts ought, of all men, to be 
most strictly held to their duty. 

Strong instances of self-denial operate powerfully on our minds; 
and a man who has no wants has obtained great freedom and firmness' 
and even dignity. 

All, persons possessing any portion of power ought to be strongly 
and awfully impressed with an idea that they act in trust, and that 
they are to account for their conduct in that trust to the one great mas- 
ter, author and founder of society. 

The road to eminence and power, from obscure condition, ought not 
to be made too easy, nor a thing too much of course. The temjl, < " 
honor ought to be seated on an eminence. If it be opened through \ ;- - 
tue, let it be remembered that virtue is never tried but by some diiM- 
culty and some struggle. 



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4 Byron's Prisoner of Chillon. 

5 Moore's Fire - Worshippers (Lalla 

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6 Goldsmith's Deserted Village. 

7 Scott's Marmion. (Selections from 

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8 Scott's Lay of the Last Minstrel. 

(Introduction and Canto I.) 

9 Burns' Cotter s Saturday Night, and 

Other Poems. 

10 Crabbe's The Village. 

11 Campbell's Pleasures of Hope. 

(Abridgment of Part I.) 

12 Macaulay's h 3ays on Bunyan's Pil 

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13 Macaulay's Armada, and other 

14 Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice. 

(Selections from Acts I., III. and IV.) 

15 Goldsmith's Traveller. 
^ 16 Hogg's Queen's Wake. 

17 Coleridge's Ancient Mariner. 

18 Addison's Sir Roger de Coverley. 

19 Gray's Elegy in a Country Church- 

yard. 

20 Scott's Lady of the Lake. (Canto I.) 

21 Shakespeare's As You Like It, etc. 

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22 Shakespeare's King John and King 

Richard XL (Selectioue.) 

23 Shakespeare's King Henry IV., 

Henry V., Henry VI. (Selections.) 

24 Shakespeare's Henry VIII. and 

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26 Pope's Essay on Criticism. 

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27 Spenser's Faerie Queene. Cantos 
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28 Cowper's Task. (Book I.) 

29 Milton's Comus. 

30 Tennyson's Etoch Arden. 

31 Irving' s Sketch Book. (Selections 

32 Dickens' Christmas Carol. , 

(Condense' 

33 Carlyle's Hero as a Prophet. 

34 Macaulay's Warren Hastings. 

(Condensei 

35 Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield. 

(Condense 

36 Tennyson's The Two Voices anc" 
Dream of Fair Women. 

37 Memory Quotatio- s. For use in H 
Schools and upper classes of Grami 
Schools. 

38 Cavalier Poets. 

39 Dryden's Alexander's Feast 8 
MacFleknoe. 

40 Keats' The Eve of St. Agnes. 

41 Irving's Legend of Sleepy Holloa 

42 Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare. 

43 Le Row's How to Teach Reading. 
The author of this manual has 1 

long and successful experience 
teaching this subject. 

44 Webster's Bunker Hill Orations; 
46 The Academy Orthoepist. a Mar. 

of Pronunciation for u!<e in the Schc 
room, including a special list of pro] 
names of frequent occurrence in lite 
ture, science and art. 

46 Milton's Lycidas, and Hymn on t 
Nativity. tPoen 

47 Bryant's Thanatopsis, and other 

48 Ruskins Modern Painters. 

49 The Shakespeare Speaker. Selecti 
from Shakespeare for declamation. 

50 Thackeray's Roundabout Papers 

51 Webster's Adams and Jeflferson 

LUra' 



